Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode (1905-1978)

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photo supplement.

   Possessing one of the more aristocratic-sounding names you'll read about here on the site, career diplomat Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode was a native of Washington, D.C. and for over two decades time served as U.S. Vice Consul and Consul to areas in Canada, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The son of Cuthbert Powell and Esther Gordon Minnigerode, Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode was born in Washington, D.C. on August 22, 1905. A distinguished figure in capital art circles, C. Powell Minnigerode was for over five decades connected to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, serving as its director for forty years.

   Recorded by most sources under the name "H. Gordon", Minnigerode attended the Western High School in the nation's capital and would enroll at Brown University in the mid-1920s. Following his graduation in 1928, Minnigerode briefly flirted with a career in journalism, being a newspaper reporter for about a year. In 1930 he passed the foreign service examination and was appointed Foreign Service officer unclassified. In April 1930 he was sent on his first diplomatic mission, that of Vice Consul in Montreal, Canada, and also briefly served as Vice-Consul in Quebec beginning in July. In September 1930 Minnigerode returned to the United States to study at the Foreign Service Officer's training school, where he remained through the final months of the year.

   Named as Vice Consul in Jerusalem in early 1931, Minnigerode entered into his duties in February of that year and remained at that post until the summer of 1933, when he was transferred to the U.S. Embassy at Tegucigalpa, Honduras. His time as third secretary and Vice Consul in the country extended only a year, and in October 1934 began a three-year tenure as Vice Consul in Bangkok, Thailand. In a curious bit of "strange name" trivia, Minnigerode's fellow vice-consul at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok was none other than Halvern Lamar Norris (1896-1955), who was profiled here earlier this month.  These two oddly named men served together in Bangkok from 1934 until Norris's transfer to Belgrade in 1938 and were photographed together at an October 1935 meeting between the American Legation and the Asiatic Squadron of the U.S. Naval Fleet. 

Halvern Norris (pictured left) and Holdsworth Minnigerode, from the Foreign Service Journal.

  Minnigerode continued to serve in the Asiatic sphere after his transfer from Bangkok, being designated as Vice Consul in Singapore in December 1937. In January of the new year, Minnigerode met his future wife, Birmingham, Alabama native Anna Hardeman Meade (1903-1986) at a Washington, D.C. dinner party. Within a few weeks of their meeting, the couple became engaged and married in Singapore on Minnigerode's birthday, August 22, 1938. The couple were wed for nearly forty years and would remain childless.

  1940 saw Minnigerode and his wife still residing in Singapore, and for a brief period that year, he served as acting consul in Penang, Malaysia. The couple returned to the United States for home leave in 1941, residing in Washington from June-October. This time also saw Minnigerode compile an article entitled "Life Grows Grim in Singapore" that would see publication in the November edition of the National Geographic. In August 1941 he was selected as Vice Consul in San Jose, Costa Rica (serving until 1945), and in February of that year was named to his first European post, that of vice-consul in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Minnigerodre advanced to full Consul in April 1945 and in the year following began serving as Consul in Karachi, Pakistan.

  Entering into his duties in August 1946, Minnigerode would be the last consul in Karachi before it became the capital of Pakistan (that country becoming a nation in 1947) and saw the consulate officially be designated an embassy. From 1948-50 Minnigerode and his wife resided in Cairo, Egypt, where he was Consul, and for four months pulled diplomatic "double duty", serving as acting consul in Lagos, Nigeria from February to May 1949, This, in turn, was followed by Minnigerode's posting in Daar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika from November 1949 to 1951, and afterward was named Consul in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

  Minnigerode's stay in South Africa from 1954-56 saw him profiled by one of his fellow diplomats (John James Harter) as an "eccentric, introverted, academic-type person" who enjoyed the high society life of other nations. Minngerode achieved his highest ranking diplomatic post in 1956 when he began a two-year tenure as Consul General in Cape Town. During this time he and his wife played to host to a visiting Adlai E. Stevenson, who had been invited to address the South African parliament. 

  Reassigned to the state department in Washington early in 1958, Minnigerode retired from the diplomatic service that same year and in the following year, he and his wife purchased the ''Thornhill" plantation in Talladega, Alabama, where they would reside for the remainder of their lives. Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode died in Talladega on February 18, 1978, aged 72. He was later interred in the family plot at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Anna Hardeman Meade Menningerode survived her husband by eight years, and following her death aged 83 in 1986 was interred at that same cemetery.

From the Anniston Star, February 19, 1978.

Renwick Sloane McNiece (1886-1983)

Portrait from the Salt Lake Times, May 24, 1916.

  The first odd named American diplomat profiled on the site in well over a year, Renwick Sloane McNiece lived nearly a century and prior to his diplomatic career was a teacher in Salt Lake City, as well as a veteran of World War I. Entering into the foreign service in 1920, McNiece would subsequently be appointed as U.S. Consul to several different countries over twenty years time, with his travels taking him to Malaysia, Barbados, Great Britain, Pakistan, Spain, Chile, Venezuela, and Italy. 

   The son of the Rev. Robert and Sarah (Irwin) McNiece, Renwick Sloane McNiece was born in Salt Lake City on June 28, 1886. Young Renwick would attend private schools in the Salt Lake area and went on to enroll at Princeton University, graduating in the class of 1907. Following graduation, he spent the next decade employed as a teacher at the Salt Lake City high school and in the summer of 1917 briefly worked as the manager for a copper company's office. At the dawn of American involvement in World War I McNiece began field artillery training at the Presidio camp in San Francisco in August 1917. In December of that year, he married Ruth Anderson Storer (1886-1948), to whom he was wed until her death. The couple would remain childless.

   Following his graduation from the Presidio McNiece was dispatched overseas and in February of 1918 was on board the troopship S.S. Tuscania when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland. 210 troops and crewmen would lose their lives in the sinking. He (along with four other Salt Lake servicemen) were among the lucky survivors, and following his rescue at sea was transported to France, where he would serve in "the artillery and supply corps." 

   By the conclusion of his military service McNiece had attained the rank of captain and following his return stateside garnered a teaching fellowship at the University of California, where he taught from 1919-20. McNiece would eventually decide on a career in the foreign service, and after passing his examination was appointed as U.S. Consul (class seven) in Penang, Malaysia in June 1920. After two years of service in Malaysia McNiece advanced to U.S. Consul class six, and in August 1922 was dispatched to St. Michaels, Barbados. He would serve in that capacity from March 1923 to July 1924, and in September of that latter year again changed consulates, this time being stationed as U.S. Consul in Stoke-on-Trent, Great Britain.

From the Salt Lake Tribune, February 10, 1918.

    McNiece's time in the United Kingdom extended until 1929 when he was appointed as U.S. Consul in Karachi, (located in modern-day Pakistan). His three-year consulate in Karachi concluded in 1932, whereafter he took charge of the U.S. Consulate in Vigo, Spain, a role he would fill until 1935. From 1935-40 McNiece continued in diplomatic service in Valparaiso, Chile, and after leaving the consulate there was named consul at Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1940. By 1944 he had again been transferred (this time to Horta, Azores Islands) and after a two-year consulate in that location began his final diplomatic post, that of Consul General in Palermo, Italy.

  In 1948 Renwick McNiece retired from diplomatic service and in that same year was beset by tragedy with the death of his wife Ruth in Zurich, Switzerland. He later retired to Los Angeles and two years following his wife's death remarried to Hazel Morse Hartley, who predeceased him in 1973.  In September 1975 the then 88-year-old retired diplomat wed for a third time, marrying Caroline Mathews Kelly (1906-1989). The couple continued to reside in Los Angeles until his death on February 3, 1983, at age 96. Following his death, Renwick McNiece was interred at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, the same resting place as that of his wives Ruth and Hazel.