Dr Richard Smith

Organisations:	The National Archives, Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street

Dr Richard Smith, Senior Historian at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and an editor of Documents on British Policy Overseas.

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Sir Edward Grey and the First World War: the unmaking of a Foreign Secretary

Dr Richard Smith, 12 December 2016 — Foreign Office Historians

On the day Sir Edward Grey received the seals of office from Edward VII – 11 December 1905 - a dense fog hung over London. It was so thick that …

Hugh O’Beirne and the sinking of HMS Hampshire: a diplomat remembered

Dr Richard Smith, 6 June 2016 — Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians

The death of Lord Kitchener, who drowned when HMS Hampshire sank just off the Orkney’s north-west coast on 5 June 1916, came as a profound shock to the nation. The Secretary of State for War was the public face of …

Sir Edward Grey: a fitting tribute

Dr Richard Smith, 7 December 2015 — Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians

For almost 80 years the distinguished profile of Sir Edward Grey has looked on as the great and the good have made their way in and out of the ‘Ambassador’s Entrance’ of the Foreign Office. But how did this memorial …

Wartime in Paris: an Ambassador tweets

Dr Richard Smith, 2 September 2014 — First World War, Foreign Office Historians

Dr Richard Smith reveals an exciting new Twitter project by the FCO Historians In 1914 Sir Francis Bertie held the plum posting in the British Diplomatic Service—the ambassadorship to Paris. Not only did it carry a yearly salary of £11,500 …

If Twitter had existed in 1914: tweeting a crisis

Dr Richard Smith, 7 August 2014 — First World War, Foreign Office Historians

Diplomacy, and the Foreign Office, played a key role as events unfolded in the run-up to the First World War. For this reason FCO Historians wanted to mark the event but in an innovative way, and joined up with the Digital …

‘The lamps are going out…’: tweeting the July Crisis

Dr Richard Smith, 16 June 2014 — First World War, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians

Sunday 28 June 1914 was warm and sunny, and most Londoners were enjoying a day of rest. One exception was the resident clerk at the Foreign Office who was on duty to deal with any unexpected crisis that might occur. …

Framed for Posterity: The Private Office Gallery

Dr Richard Smith, 7 August 2013 — Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians

A quick question: how many Foreign Secretaries have there been since the Foreign Office was founded in 1782? Fifty, 100? The answer is 61 - and a portrait of every former foreign secretary hangs on the walls of the Secretary …