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Books

The first Lord Dufferin: the eclipse of a most eminent Victorian

A review of the Lost Imperialist by Andrew Gailey wonders how Queen Victoria’s distinguished proconsul, who met everyone from Sitting Bull to Bismarck, could have slipped so far into oblivion

28 February 2015

9:00 AM

28 February 2015

9:00 AM

The Lost Imperialist: Lord Dufferin, Memory and Mythmaking in an Age of Celebrity Andrew Gailey

John Murray, pp.464, £30

The first Marquess of Dufferin and Ava is largely forgotten today — rotten luck for the great diplomat of the Victorian age. In the second half of the 19th century, Dufferin zoomed around the empire, hoovering up the sweetest plums in the diplomatic service: Governor-General of Canada, ambassador to the courts of Russia, Turkey and Italy, ambassador to France, Viceroy of India.

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