[Pierre Paul]. French diplomatist, born on the 20th of January 1843. He was called to the Parisian bar, and became private secretary to Jules Ferry in the prefecture of the Seine. After ten years of administrative work in France as secretary of prefecture, and then as prefect successively of the departments of Aube (1872), Doubs (1876), Nord (1877–1882), he exchanged into the diplomatic service, being nominated French minister plenipotentiary at Tunis. In 1886 he became French ambassador to Madrid; was transferred to Constantinople in 1890, and in 1898 to London. His career at the London embassy was brilliant in the extreme. He was one of the leading artisans of the Entente Cordiale, and played a very important part in frustrating the efforts made by Germany to separate France and Great Britain in 1914 on the eve of the World War and in maintaining good Franco-British relations during the peace negotiations. He resigned his post in November 1920. He was decorated with the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
His brother, Jules Martin Cambon (1845–1935), was called to the bar in 1866, served in the Franco-Prussian War and entered the civil service in 1871. He was prefect of the department of Nord (1882) and of the Rhone (1887–1891), and in 1891 became governor-general of Algeria (see Guyot, L’œuvre de M. Jules Cambon, Paris, 1897), where he had served in a minor position in 1874. He was nominated French ambassador at Washington in 1897, and in that capacity negotiated the preliminaries of peace on behalf of the Spanish government after the war with the United States. He was transferred in 1902 to Madrid, and in 1907 to Berlin, and was there when the World War opened. He reached France from his post in Berlin after a journey in the course of which he was subjected by the Germans to many indignities. He had been a close observer of Germany’s year-long preparations for war. He became General Secretary of the Foreign Office during M. Briand’s war term of office, a post which he occupied with distinction. He was also elected a member of the French Academy.
