British Diplomacy with America and Ireland: an Ambassador's Letters, 1909–1962 - Key Data

Arthur Cecil Murray was elected as a Liberal Party MP for Kincardinshire in 1903, a seat that he held until 1923. During the First World War, he served as Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey, who held the position of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. From 1917 until 1918, Murray served as the Assistant Military Attaché to the British Embassy in Washington. There, he worked with Franklin Roosevelt and the two became close friends. They wrote to each other until Roosevelt's death in 1945. The Murray-Roosevelt correspondence contained in this collection reveals how Roosevelt’s foreign policy evolved prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. For example, it discusses Roosevelt’s influential “Quarantine Speech” of October 1937 and the pivotal Munich settlement with Adolf Hitler in 1938.

Murray’s correspondence also helps to illuminate a key phase in the history of modern Ireland—he was a prominent member of the Irish Home Rule Council. He was likewise in frequent contact with Colonel House, Woodrow Wilson's key adviser during the Great War. Murray's other key contacts included Walter Runciman, President of the Board of Trade during the Great Depression, and William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian Prime Minister during the Second World War.

Murray’s wide-ranging correspondence with leading figures constitutes an excellent resource for students, researchers, and educators interested in British and Irish politics, as well as British-American relations, throughout the early to mid-twentieth century. It will also appeal to those exploring the broader themes of international relations and modern diplomacy.