Dates

• Existence: 1834-10-13 - 1906-05-12

Biography

Philip Henry Wodehouse Currie was born in London on 13 October 1834, the fourth son of Raikes Currie (1801–1881) of Bush Hill, Middlesex, and Minley Manor, Hampshire, MP for Northampton (1837–57), and his wife, Laura Sophia (d.1869), eldest daughter of John Wodehouse, second Baron Wodehouse. He was educated at Eton College and entered the Foreign Office at the age of twenty. He served in that department for forty years, moving up the various grades of political staff to become assistant under-secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1882 and permanent under-secretary of state, the highest permanent post in the Foreign Office, in 1888.
Currie served for five years as permanent under-secretary, during which he was made GCB in 1892. He was then appointed by Lord Rosebery in December 1893 as British ambassador at Constantinople and, following precedent, was sworn of the privy council. He held this embassy for four and a half very difficult years when relations between Britain and Turkey were exceedingly tense. In July 1898 he succeeded Sir Clare Ford at the embassy at Rome, his last post before he was retired on pension on 17 January 1903.
Currie, who belonged to a well-known banking family, was a man of considerable wealth. On 24 January 1894 he married Mrs Mary Montgomerie Singleton, née Lamb (1843–1905), a well-known author and poet under the nom de plume of Violet Fane. There were no children. Currie was raised to the peerage in 1899 as Baron Currie of Hawley. He died on 12 May 1906 at Hawley, Hampshire.

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