[Francis Leveson; 1st Viscount]. English diplomatist, born at Wytham Abbey, Oxon., on the 17th of August 1844, the second son of the 6th Earl of Abingdon. He was educated at Eton, and in 1863 entered the Foreign Office. In 1874 he married the daughter of the 1st Earl Cowley. He was attached to the special embassy to Berlin in 1878, and in 1881 was secretary to the Duke of Fife’s mission to invest the King of Saxony with the Garter. In 1894 he became assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a post which he retained till 1903. He was then appointed British ambassador to Italy, but remained in Rome for only a year, being appointed in 1905 ambassador to France. The Anglo-French agreement had been signed in 1904, and the new ambassador’s personal popularity was most successful in strengthening the ties thus formed between England and France. On the outbreak of war in 1914 Sir Francis Bertie’s position became one of great importance and responsibility, and he was untiring in his efforts towards establishing the most complete understanding between England and France. He retired in 1918. Bertie had been made K.C.B. in 1902, G.C.V.O. and privy councillor in 1903, G.C.M.G. in 1904, and G.C.B. in 1908. He was raised to the peerage on his retirement with the title of Viscount Bertie of Thame. He died in London on the 27th of September 1919 and was succeeded by his son, Vere Frederick Bertie (1878–1954).
