John Wallace Riddle Jr.
John W. Riddle, photo by Pirie MacDonald
United States Ambassador to Argentina
In office
March 8, 1922 – May 28, 1925
PresidentWarren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Preceded byFrederic Jesup Stimson
Succeeded byPeter Augustus Jay
United States Ambassador to Russia
In office
February 8, 1907 – September 8, 1909
PresidentTheodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Preceded byGeorge von Lengerke Meyer
Succeeded byWilliam Woodville Rockhill
United States Minister to Serbia
In office
May 7, 1906 – January 23, 1907
PresidentTheodore Roosevelt
Preceded byJohn Brinkerhoff Jackson
Succeeded byHorace G. Knowles
United States Minister to Romania
In office
October 3, 1905 – January 23, 1907
PresidentTheodore Roosevelt
Preceded byJohn Brinkerhoff Jackson
Succeeded byHorace G. Knowles
Personal details
Born(1864-07-12)July 12, 1864
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedDecember 8, 1941(1941-12-08) (aged 77)
Farmington, Connecticut
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1916)​
Parent(s)John Wallace Riddle Sr.
Rebecca Blair McClure
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Columbia Law School
Sciences Po
Collège de France
Signature

John Wallace Riddle Jr. (July 12, 1864 – December 8, 1941) was an American diplomat. His first diplomatic assignment was as agent/consul general in Egypt (1904–1905).[1] He was then sent to Romania and Serbia in 1905 to serve as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary (residing in Bucharest[1]), followed by postings as U.S. ambassador to Russia (1907–1909) and ambassador to Argentina (1922–1925).[1][2]

Personal life

Born in Philadelphia,[3] Riddle was the son of John Wallace Riddle, Sr. and Rebecca Blair McClure; he was born after his father's untimely death. A few years later, Rebecca McClure became the second wife of Charles Eugene Flandrau and relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota where Riddle grew up alongside two half-brothers and two step-sisters.[4] He graduated from Harvard in 1887, attended law school at Columbia through 1890, and studied international law, diplomacy, and languages at École Libre des Sciences Politiques and the Collège de France in Paris through 1893.[5]

In 1916 Riddle married American architect and heiress Theodate Pope Riddle.[6]

He died in Farmington, Connecticut, at the age of 77.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c "John Wallace Riddle". Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  2. ^ "U.S. Ministers and Ambassadors to Russia". Embassy of the United States, Moscow Russia. Archived from the original on August 30, 2009. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  3. ^ a b "JOHN W. RIDDLE, 77, EX-DIPLOMAT, DIES; Envoy to Russia, 1906-09, and Argentina, 1921-25, Had Held U.S. Post in Turkey". The New York Times. December 9, 1941. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  4. ^ Haeg, Lawrence Peter (2004). In Gatsby's Shadow: The Story of Charles Macomb Flandrau. University of Iowa Press.
  5. ^ Derby, George and James Terry White (1910). The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time. Vol. 14. New York: James T. White & Company.
  6. ^ "Theodate Pope Riddle". Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on October 10, 2009. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
Diplomatic posts Preceded byGeorge von Lengerke Meyer United States Ambassador to Russia 1906–1909 Succeeded byWilliam Woodville Rockhill Preceded byFrederic Jesup Stimson United States Ambassador to Argentina 1921–1925 Succeeded byPeter A. Jay
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