Victor Mallet


Sir Victor Mallet was a British diplomat and author.

Career

Victor Alexander Louis Mallet was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1914 he joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment and served during World War I with the British Expeditionary Force and later in Ireland, reaching the rank of Captain. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1919 and held posts in Tehran 1919–22 and 1933–35, Buenos Aires 1926–28, Brussels 1929–32, Washington D.C. 1936–39 and in the Foreign Office 1922–26 and 1932. He was Envoy to Sweden 1940–45 during World War II and Ambassador to Spain 1945–46 and to Italy 1947–53.

Family

Victor Mallet was son of Sir Bernard Mallet and his wife Marie, daughter of Henry John Adeane by his wife, Lady Elizabeth Yorke, daughter of the 4th Earl of Hardwicke. His mother was a Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria and he was godson to the Queen. His book Life with Queen Victoria, a record of his mother's letters written during her service, was published in 1968.
He married Christiana Jean Andreae, daughter of Herman Anton Andreae, of Moundsmere Manor, in Hampshire, and his wife, Christiana Candida in 1925; they had three sons and a daughter, Anne Marie, who married Patrick Butler, 18th/28th Baron Dunboyne in 1950.

Publications

  • Life with Queen Victoria: Marie Mallet's Letters from Court, 1887-1901, John Murray, London, 1968.

Honours

Victor Mallet was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1934 New Year Honours and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1939. He was promoted to Knight Commander in the 1944 New Year Honours and again to Knight Grand Cross in the 1952 Birthday Honours.