Montague Bentley Talbot Paske-Smith (1886 – 10 January 1946) was a British diplomat who served as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Colombia from 1936 to 1941.
Early life and education
Paske-Smith was born in 1886 in Calgary, Canada, the eldest son of Rev. Edward Paske-Smith of Newton-on-Ouse. He was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey.
Career
Paske-Smith joined the Eastern consular service as a student interpreter in Japan in 1907. From 1909 to 1910, he was acting vice-consul at Manila, and then in 1914 at Shimonoseki. He then returned to Manila where he spent six years first as acting vice-consul, then vice-consul, before he was promoted to consul-general in 1919.
He was then transferred to Japan, where he served as vice-consul in Osaka from 1919 to 1921; acting consul-general in Kobe from 1921 to 1922; and consul in Nagasaki in 1924, before he returned to Osaka in 1927. In 1930, he was acting consul-general at Manila, and then consul in Dairen in 1931; Honolulu between 1932 and 1934; and then Madrid from 1934 to 1936. In 1936, he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Colombia at Bogota, a post he held until 1941 when he retired from the service.
Personal life and death
Paske-Smith married Maria Teresa Bertran de Lis of Madrid in 1912, and they had two daughters.
Paske-Smith died on 10 January 1946.
Publications
England and Japan: The First Fifty Years (1927) Western Barbarians in Japan and Formosa in Tokugawa Days (1930) Japanese Traditions of Christianity (1930) Early British Consuls in Hawaii (1936)
Honours
Paske-Smith was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1941 Birthday Honours. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1920. He was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1923.
See also
Colombia–United Kingdom relations
References