Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/657

 a very sensitive ear, whilst his 'Modes of Greek Music' (1894) attests his fondness for music and his knowledge of it. Monro founded the Oxford Philological Society in 1870, and was for many years its president; he took part in founding the Hellenic Society and the Classical Association, and was vice-president of both; he was a member of the council of the British School at Athens, officier de l'instruction publique in France, and an original fellow of the British Academy. He was created hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1904, LL.D. of Glasgow in 1883, and Doc. Litt. of Dublin in 1892. He died suddenly of heart disease at Heiden, Switzerland, on 22 Aug. 1905, and was buried in Holywell cemetery, Oxford. His portrait by Sir William Quiller Orchardson, R.A., is in the Oriel common room. He was unmarried.

 MONSON, EDMUND JOHN, first baronet (1834–1909), diplomatist, born at Chart Lodge, Seal, near Sevenoaks, on 6 Oct. 1834, was third son of William John Monson, sixth Baron Monson, by his wife Eliza, youngest daughter of Edmund Larken. Educated first at a private school in the Isle of Wight, and then at Eton, he entered Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. with a first-class degree in law and modern history in 1855. Elected a fellow of All Souls College in 1858, and proceeding M.A. in the same year, he acted as examiner in modern languages for the Taylorian scholarship in 1868. He entered the diplomatic service in 1856, and on passing an examination was appointed attaché at Paris in July of that year. After a few months in Florence in 1858 he was retransferred to Paris, and thence to Washington, where for nearly five years he acted as private secretary to Lord Lyons [q. v.]. During that period Lyons was occupied with the critical questions which resulted from the outbreak of the American civil war. In 1863 Monson was removed to Hanover, and thence after a few months to Brussels. In 1865 he quitted the diplomatic service and sought election to parliament as member for Reigate in the liberal interest, but was unsuccessful, and remained unemployed till May 1869, when he became consul in the This appointment was intended as a stepping-stone to renewed diplomats employment, for which he was eminently fitted both by disposition and by training. In 1871 when the independent position to Hungary by the dual constitution was found to render the presence of a British agent at the Hungarian capital desirable. Monson was selected for the newly created post of consul-general at Buda-Pesth, the diplomatic nature of the appointment being subsequently emphasised by the additional rank of second secretary to the embassy at Vienna. In February 1876, when it grew evident that Servia and Montenegro were in danger of being driven into active hostilities against Turkey in aid of the insurgents in Servia and Herzagovina, it was deemed prudent to have a British representative at the Hontenegrin capital, and Monson was sent on a special mission to Cettigne. He remained there, though suffering severely in health, during the war of the Servians and Montenegrins with the Turks which broke out in following, through the subsequent medition by Great Britain for the purpose of procuring an armistice, and the deliberations of the conference at Constantinople. The declaration of war by Russia against Turkey, in April 1877, rendered his presence at Cettigne no longer necessary, and he returned to Buda-Pesth, being made C.B. in January 1878. In June 1879 he was appointed minister resident in Uruguay, and five years later was promoted to the rank of envoy at Buenos Ayres. At the close of 1884 he was transferred to Copenhagen, and in February 1888 to Athens, becoming in 1886 K.C.M.G. Before he left Denmark, the Danish and United States governments bore testimony to their 'entire confidence' in his learning, ability, and impartiality by selecting him as arbitrator on the claims of the American firm of Butterfield & Co. against the Danish government on account of the treatment of two of their vessels by the Danish authorities of the island of St. Thomas in 1854 and 1855. This case had been a subject of diplomatic controversy for over thirty years. It was settled in the Danish government's favour by Monson's award, delivered in January 1900. In 1898 ha was transferred to Brussels and was made G.C.M.G. Next year he was promoted to be ambassador at Vienna and was sworn a privy councillor. After three years' residence at the Austrian capital be was transferred to Paris in October 1896, having a few months 