Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian

The Most Honourable The Marquess of Lothian KT CH PC DL
British Ambassador to the United States
In office 1 September 1939 – 12 December 1940
Monarch	George VI
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Sir Ronald Lindsay
Succeeded by	The Viscount Halifax
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 25 August 1931 – 10 November 1931
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	The Lord Ponsonby
Succeeded by	J. C. C. Davidson
Personal details
Born	(1882-04-18)18 April 1882 London, England, United Kingdom
Died	12 December 1940(1940-12-12) (aged 58) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Liberal
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
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Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian, KT, CH, PC, DL (18 April 1882 – 12 December 1940) was a British politician, diplomat and newspaper editor. He was private secretary to Prime Minister David Lloyd George between 1916 and 1921 and as such played a major role in the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920). After succeeding a cousin in the marquessate in 1930, he held junior ministerial offices in the Lords from 1931 to 1932 in the National Government, headed by Ramsay MacDonald.

In the 1930s, Lothian promoted entente with Germany, and was considered by critics as a leading advocate of appeasement of Germany but his role was more complex than that. He felt the harshness of the ultimate German reparations in the Treaty of Versailles had been a great mistake. He also emphasised the dangers of Stalin's communism. He changed his mind about Hitler's intentions on reading a English translation of Mien Kampf. He then felt war was inevitable and it was vital that Britain speed up re-armament as their armed forces were not a match for Hitler's at the time.

From 1939 to his death, he was Ambassador to the United States. As such he probably did more than any individual, other than Churchill, to get a neutral United States finally involved in the Second World War and he proved highly successful in winning America's support for the British war effort, especially the Lend-Lease Act, which passed Congress after his death.

On his premature death as British Ambassador to Washington, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described him as 'Our greatest ambassador to the United States.' ^[1]