The Papers of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice

Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice was born 27 February 1859, son of Charles and Elizabeth Spring-Rice. He was educated at Eton College then Balliol College, Oxford. In 1904 he married Florence Lascelles (daughter of Sir Frank Lascelles), with whom he had one son and one daughter.

In 1882 he entered the Foreign Office and was Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville and précis writer for Lord Rosebery. He held a series of diplomatic posts including: Secretary of Legation in Brussels, Washington, Tokyo, Berlin and Constantinople [Istanbul]; Charge d'Affaires Tehran (1900); British Commissioner of the Public Debt in Cairo (1901); 1st Secretary St Petersburg (1903); Minister and Consul General Persia [Iran](1906); Minister in Sweden (1908-1913); and British Ambassador in Washington (1912-1917). Spring-Rice was also a poet and the author of "I vow to thee my country", the famous hymn. He died on 14 February 1918.

The Spring Rice papers held by Churchill College consist almost entirely of personal correspondence. His correspondents fall into four main groups; his family, English friends, many of whom he had met at Eton or Oxford, fellow members of the Foreign Office and of the Diplomatic Service, and prominent Americans including Theodore Roosevelt, whom he had met during his periods of service in Washington. On the whole the correspondence contains far more information about the social background of a diplomatic life than about his official activities. The main exception is the correspondence with Sir Valentine Chirol of the Times with whom Spring Rice discussed a great variety of political questions. There are also a few official papers from Spring Rice's service in Persia in l900 and a set of carbon copies of his semi-official letters from St. Petersburg in 1905-06. They include an account of early examples of Russian espionage.

The collection was deposited at Churchill Archives Centre between 1972 and 1990 by Spring-Rice's daughter, Lady Arthur. Section 9 had previously been deposited by Lady Arthur with the National Register of Archives, who prepared a detailed list to that section.

The Spring-Rice collection comprises various deposits which were given to the Archives Centre at various different stages. The initial catalogue was begun before the collection was complete and so the arrangement of the papers is not comprehensive. CASR section 10 includes additional papers which have not been integrated into the arrangement of the initial catalogue. Then in 1986 a second section of the catalogue (CASR II) was produced which includes further series of the same type of material that had been included in the initial catalogue (CASR). The division of the papers into sections reflecting the time of their deposit has created a complicated arrangement. For example family correspondence can be found in CASR 1, CASR 10/8 and CASR II 1.

The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Churchill Archives Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. A prior appointment and two forms of identification are required.

Researchers wishing to publish excerpts from the papers must obtain prior permission from the copyright holder and should seek advice from Archives Centre staff.

Please cite as Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, CASR

The Spring Rice papers formed the basis for "The Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring Rice -A Record" edited by Stephen Gwynn Constable and Company, London (1929).

Churchill Archives Centre holds the papers of Spring-Rice's father-in-law, Sir Frank Lascelles (reference code GBR/014 LASC). The National Archives holds a series of Spring-Rice miscellaneous correspondence (reference FO 800/241-242) in the Foreign Office papers.

The collection has mostly been catalogued and hard copies of the catalogue are available in the Reading Room at Churchill Archives Centre and at the National Register of Archives in London. The collection and series description is also available on the Janus website http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk. There is also a box list of 5 further boxes of material which has not been incorporated into the catalogue.

This collection and series description was prepared by Natalie Adams of Churchill Archives Centre in October 2004. Information about the archive was taken from the typescript catalogue. Biographical information was obtained from Spring-Rice's entry in Who Was Who (A& C Black, London) and from the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.