Somerville Pinkney Tuck (1891-1967)

From the Gloversville Leader-Herald,  August 13, 1956.

  U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Somerville Pinkney Tuck was, like Charlemagne Tower Jr. before him, well educated and born into wealth and prominence. As the son of Somerville Pinkney Tuck (1848-1923), an American born jurist who served on the International Court of Egypt, Tuck the younger attended schools in Europe and was well prepared for a life in diplomatic service. Born in Staten Island, New York on May 21, 1891, Somerville Pinkney Tuck was the son of Judge Somerville Pinkney and Emily Rosalie (Snowden) Tuck. While father and son share the same name, most sources record both under the abbreviated name "S. Pinkney."

  No biography of S. Pinkey Tuck's diplomatic accomplishments would be complete without mention of his father, who attained international distinction as a jurist. A graduate of the University of Virginia in 1869, S. Pinkney Tuck the elder practiced law in New York City for over twenty years before being nominated by President Cleveland as a judge on the International Court of First Instance in Egypt, a court comprised of judges "who regulated the privileges and status of foreigners domiciled within the dominions of the Turkish sultan." This appointment was later upheld by the Khedive of Egypt, and Tuck sat on this international bench until 1908, when he advanced to the International Court of Appeals at Cairo, Egypt. Tuck continued his service in Egypt until his retirement in 1920, and three years later died and was buried in France.

   As the son of an internationally known jurist, S. Pinkney Tuck was afforded the luxury of attending preparatory schools in Switzerland and Germany, as well as in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He later enrolled at Dartmouth University, and, following his graduation in 1913, decided to follow his father's path and serve abroad. After passing the foreign service exam in 1913 Tuck was appointed as deputy consul at Alexandria, Egypt that September and in May 1914 became vice-consul. By 1919 he had advanced to Consul of class seven and remained in Egypt until January 1920, when he was transferred to the U.S. Consulate in Samsoun, Anatolia, Turkey. 

  Between 1920 and 1938 S. Pinkney Tuck rabbited around the globe, being detailed as a diplomat to over a dozen different areas. The following is a list of positions Tuck occupied abroad between the aforementioned dates:

• 1921--Member of the staff of the U.S. High Commissioner in Constantinople, Turkey.
• 1922--Detailed consul to the diplomatic agency in Cairo, Egypt. Named as U.S. Consul in Vladivostok, Siberia that same year, serving until 1923.
• 1923--Served at the State Department until 1924.
• 1924--Appointed as U.S. Consul at Geneva, Switzerland, serving until 1928. This period of service saw Tuck attend sessions of the League of Nations advisory commission on opium in 1925, 1926, and 1927; American delegate to the Conference for the Limitation for Naval Disarmament, 1927.
• 1928--First Secretary of the American Embassy in Cairo, Egypt (serving until 1929.)
• 1929--First Secretary of the American legation at Budapest, Hungary (serving until 1931.)
• 1932--Appointed as U.S. Charge d'Affaires at Prague.
• 1933--Appointed as First Secretary of the American legation at Paris, France.
• 1937--Designated counselor of Embassy at Brussels, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
• 1938--Counselor of Embassy at Buenos Aires, Argentina (serving until 1941.)

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photo supplement.

   In 1941 Tuck entered into one of his most important diplomatic assignments, that of U.S. Charge d'Affaires to Vichy, France. Several months prior to his arrival in France, the French parliament had voted to end the Third Republic and begin a French State, headed by Marshal Henri Petain (1856-1951). With the de facto capital of France now located at Vichy, Petain and his cabinet signed an armistice agreement with Nazi Germany in June 1940, becoming collaborators with the Nazi government. This period saw S. Pinkney Tuck have a front-line view of rising anti-Semitism against French Jews, their internment in camps in Vichy, and the forced separation of Jewish children from their parents. These collections and deportations reached their apex in July 1942 when nearly 13,000 Jews (including 4,500 children) were arrested in Paris and relocated to a stadium to be deported.  

   Justifiably concerned, S. Pinkney Tuck cabled Secretary of State Cordell Hull in September 1942, informing him of "the fate of Jewish children in the unoccupied zone who have been and are still being separated from their parents." At Hull's suggestion, an idea was hatched to allow "as many children as the United States would be willing to accept" to emigrate from France. After substantial capital was raised to put the plan into action, as well as contributions from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Quakers, Tuck received a cable from Hull, with directions to ask then Vichy head of state Pierre Laval for exit visas for the children. Following pressure from Tuck, Laval agreed, and with further consultation with the German envoy in Vichy, allowed for five hundred visas to be given out. With these five hundred visas, further plans were laid to relocate thousands of more children out of France, with Canada, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic offering to accept vast numbers.

  This first group of 500 children would leave France for Lisbon, Portugal in November 1942, and, despite a bright start to an ambitious plan, further good fortune was curtailed with the landing of American troops in North Africa that November. Because of this action, Vichy, France took retribution by severing diplomatic channels with the United States and canceled all further exit visas, dashing the hopes of rescuing further children.

Mr. and Mrs. S. Pinkney Tuck, from the May 1944 Foreign Service Journal.

  With relations between Vichy and the United States further deteriorating, S Pinkney Tuck, his wife and other members of the American legation (including staff of other French consulates) were detained by the Germans for two months at hotels in Lourdes, France before being relocated for internment at the Brenners Park Hotel in Baden-Baden, Germany. Tuck and his wife remained in Baden-Baden until being released in March 1944 and would return to the United States aboard the MS Gripsholm.

  Just a short period after his return to the United States, S. Pinkney Tuck would be called once again to diplomatic service, being appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Egypt in April 1944. Following confirmation by the senate, Tuck returned to Egypt and in September 1946 achieved the rank of Ambassador. He retired from diplomatic service in May 1948 and a few months following his retirement gained further distinction when he was named to the board of directors of the Suez Canal Company, becoming the first American to be so honored. He would serve on that board until the Egyptian government "nationalized the waterway" in 1956, and in the twilight of his life resided with his wife in Geneva, Switzerland, and Paris, France. He died at a Paris hospital on April 22, 1967, and was survived by his wife Katherine Whitney (Demme) Tuck (1897-1981), who he had married in 1936. He was later interred at the St. Barnabas Church Cemetery in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Tuck during his time as Ambassador to Egypt.