Francis Bertie (later Viscount Bertie of Thame) never visited Japan; nor is he known to have shown any particular interest in the country, its history or its culture. To include him in the series of Anglo-Japanese biographical portraits might therefore appear quixotic. It is not. For Bertie helped to shape Britain's dealings with Japan more than many others who occupy a more prominent place in the history of the relations between the two countries. As assistant under-secretary (AUS) at the Foreign Office between 1894 and 1902 he was instrumental in preparing the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, thereby establishing the broad parameters of British policy in East Asia for the next two decades, and perhaps even beyond.

‘THE BULL’ IN WHITEHALL

There was little in Bertie's early career to indicate his later role in Anglo-Japanese relations. Born in 1844 as the second son of the Earl of Abingdon, he eschewed the army or the church, the traditional destinations for the younger members of the aristocracy, neither of which suited his caustic and cynical temperament. Instead he opted for a career in diplomacy. On leaving Eton, he spent two years at Bonn to perfect his language skills. In 1863, as a callow youth of nineteen, he took the Foreign Office entrance examination, which he passed with flying colours, coming top of his cohort.

Thus began a career at the Foreign Office that lasted until early 1903, when Bertie secured an appointment in the then still separate diplomatic service first as ambassador at Rome, before being transferred to Paris two years later, in which post he was to remain until 1918. His early years at the Foreign Office were spent on the humdrum duties that were the preserve of junior clerks in those days – ‘largely mechanical, but at the same time confidential’ – copying despatches or encyphering and decyphering telegrams. Bertie acquired a reputation as a diligent and efficient official, so much so that, in 1874 – his family's Tory ties no doubt aiding him – he was appointed private secretary to the Hon. Robert Bourke, parliamentary under-secretary in the incoming administration of Benjamin Disraeli, a posi tion which Bertie held until the fall of the ministry in 1880.