The Hon. Sir William Stuart, (3 March 1824 – 1 April 1896) was a British diplomat who served as Minister to Argentina, Greece and The Netherlands.
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Early life
William Stuart was the third son of Maj.-Gen. Robert Walter Stuart, 11th Lord Blantyre and the former Frances Mary Rodney, a daughter of Capt. Hon. John Rodney (son of Admiral George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney). His older brother was Charles Stuart, 12th Lord Blantyre who married Evelyn, the second daughter of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland.
He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Career
He entered the Diplomatic Service in 1845 as unpaid attaché in Paris, and continued unpaid for six years until 1851. In 1856 it fell to Stuart (by then with the rank of First Attaché at Paris) to carry back to London the Ratification, signed by the monarchs of the participating countries, of the Treaty of Paris (1856).
In 1856 Stuart began a series of posts as Secretary of Legation, first at Rio de Janeiro, then at Naples from 1859 until February 1861 when King Francis II was overthrown and the British legation at Naples was closed. Stuart was then appointed to Athens in October 1861, to Washington, D.C. in October 1862, to Constantinople in 1864 and to St Petersburg in 1866.