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Charles Bewley
Charles Henry Bewley, GCSG (12 July 1888 – 1969) was an Irish diplomat.
Raised in a prominent Dublin Quaker business family, he embraced Irish Republicanism and Roman Catholicism. He was the Irish envoy to Berlin who reportedly thwarted efforts to obtain visas for Jews wanting to leave Nazi Germany in the 1930s and to move to the safety of the Irish Free State.
Bewley was born in Dublin, Ireland, into a wealthy privileged family, the eldest of four brothers. His mother was Elizabeth Eveleen Pim, whose family owned a large department store in George's Street, Dublin. His father was physician Dr. Henry Theodore Bewley (1860-1945), related to the family that operated the successful "Bewley's cafés" chain of coffee houses in Dublin that is still famous today. His parents were both Quakers, and Charles and his brothers were raised in that tradition.
He was educated at Park House, a boarding school in England. In 1901, he won a scholarship to Winchester College, where he became the Library Prefect. That honour was withdrawn when he declared in a debate that "England is not a musical nation" and ridiculed the anthem "God save the King". He proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he read Law. In 1910, he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. He completed his training as a barrister at King's Inns, Dublin, and in 1914 he was called to the bar.
Charles' brother Kenneth also attended Oxford University. Kenneth was a career civil servant in H.M. Treasury. His younger brothers, Geoffrey and Maurice, studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
Charles Bewley was seen as an "enfant terrible". He rejected his Anglo-Irish heritage and embraced Celtic mythology[citation needed] of the kind popularised by W. B. Yeats. He spoke against the "evils of Anglicization", supported the Boers in South Africa, and converted to Roman Catholicism. He rejected Unionist politics and supported the Home Rule movement.[citation needed]
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was in Ireland, acting as a defending barrister for many nationalists and republicans. He wrote Seán Mac Eoin's death-sentence speech. In the 1918 general election, he stood, unsuccessfully, as a Sinn Féin candidate. During the Irish Civil War, he took the pro-Treaty side. As a barrister, he prosecuted many anti-Treaty prisoners. At the 1923 general election, he was a Cumann na nGaedheal candidate in the Mayo South constituency, but he was not elected.
Between the truce in the Irish War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty being signed, he was Irish consul in Berlin with responsibility for trade. He was appointed Irish ambassador to the Vatican (resident minister to the Holy See) in 1929. At that time, Irish diplomatic appointments were meant to be made by the British monarch, but Bewley frequently flouted the diplomatic niceties by ignoring the implications of that. If anything, the complaints of H.J. Chilton, the British representative, and of Sir Robert Clive, his successor, improved Bewley's reputation in Ireland.[citation needed]
Charles Bewley
Charles Henry Bewley, GCSG (12 July 1888 – 1969) was an Irish diplomat.
Raised in a prominent Dublin Quaker business family, he embraced Irish Republicanism and Roman Catholicism. He was the Irish envoy to Berlin who reportedly thwarted efforts to obtain visas for Jews wanting to leave Nazi Germany in the 1930s and to move to the safety of the Irish Free State.
Bewley was born in Dublin, Ireland, into a wealthy privileged family, the eldest of four brothers. His mother was Elizabeth Eveleen Pim, whose family owned a large department store in George's Street, Dublin. His father was physician Dr. Henry Theodore Bewley (1860-1945), related to the family that operated the successful "Bewley's cafés" chain of coffee houses in Dublin that is still famous today. His parents were both Quakers, and Charles and his brothers were raised in that tradition.
He was educated at Park House, a boarding school in England. In 1901, he won a scholarship to Winchester College, where he became the Library Prefect. That honour was withdrawn when he declared in a debate that "England is not a musical nation" and ridiculed the anthem "God save the King". He proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he read Law. In 1910, he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. He completed his training as a barrister at King's Inns, Dublin, and in 1914 he was called to the bar.
Charles' brother Kenneth also attended Oxford University. Kenneth was a career civil servant in H.M. Treasury. His younger brothers, Geoffrey and Maurice, studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
Charles Bewley was seen as an "enfant terrible". He rejected his Anglo-Irish heritage and embraced Celtic mythology[citation needed] of the kind popularised by W. B. Yeats. He spoke against the "evils of Anglicization", supported the Boers in South Africa, and converted to Roman Catholicism. He rejected Unionist politics and supported the Home Rule movement.[citation needed]
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was in Ireland, acting as a defending barrister for many nationalists and republicans. He wrote Seán Mac Eoin's death-sentence speech. In the 1918 general election, he stood, unsuccessfully, as a Sinn Féin candidate. During the Irish Civil War, he took the pro-Treaty side. As a barrister, he prosecuted many anti-Treaty prisoners. At the 1923 general election, he was a Cumann na nGaedheal candidate in the Mayo South constituency, but he was not elected.
Between the truce in the Irish War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty being signed, he was Irish consul in Berlin with responsibility for trade. He was appointed Irish ambassador to the Vatican (resident minister to the Holy See) in 1929. At that time, Irish diplomatic appointments were meant to be made by the British monarch, but Bewley frequently flouted the diplomatic niceties by ignoring the implications of that. If anything, the complaints of H.J. Chilton, the British representative, and of Sir Robert Clive, his successor, improved Bewley's reputation in Ireland.[citation needed]