George Sulyarde Stafford Jerningham

A carte-de-visite portrait of Hon. George Sulyarde Stafford Jerningham (1806-1874), who served as the British ambassador to Sweden from 1859 to 1872.

Born on 17 February 1806, he was the son of George William Stafford Jerningham, 8th Baron Stafford, and his wife, Frances Henriette née Sulyarde. A career diplomat, in 1859 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden. He died on 18 May 1874 at the age of 68. He never married.

His obituary appeared in The Times on 21 November 1874: ‘Our obituary column yesterday contained the name of a gentleman well known in diplomatic circles, the Hon. George Sulyarde Stafford Jerningham, C.B. The third son of the eighth Lord Stafford, and brother of the present Peer, he was born on 17th February 1803 [sic]. According to the “Foreign Office List,” he was attached to the Embassies at St Petersburg and the Hague in 1826, was appointed a paid Attaché at the Hague in 1832, and Secretary of Legation in 1833, was Chargé d’Affaires there until 1838, when he was sent as Secretary of Legation to Turin, where he was Chargé d’Affaires in 1838; he was subsequently Secretary of Legation and Chargé d’Affaires at Madrid, Secretary of the Embassy at the Ottoman Porte and at Paris, where he acted on several occasions as Chargé d’Affaires. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Sweden and Norway in November 1853, but did not proceed to his destination. In 1854 he was sent in similar capacity to Würtemberg, and to Stockholm in 1859, but had lately retired.’

Photographed by Mathias Hansen of Stockholm.

Signed in ink by the sitter recto in the lower margin.

From an album compiled by Charles Heneage (1841-1901), a junior diplomat who later became a journalist.