George Head Barclay

Sir George Head Barclay, (23 March 1862 – 26 January 1921) was a British diplomat. Early life Barclay was born on 23 March 1862 at Walthamstow, Essex, England. He was the son of Richenda Louisa (née Gurney) Barclay (1827–1888) and Henry Ford Barclay (1826–1891) of Monkhams, Woodford. Among his siblings was Edith Richenda Barclay (mother of Sir George Nevile Bland); Sarah Adelaide Barclay (who married her cousin, Charles Alfred Leatham; son of William Henry Leatham); Henry Ford Barclay Jr.; Maj. Cameron Barclay (who married Hon. Charlotte Horsley-Beresford, daughter of the 3rd Baron Decies; Marion Alice de Gournay Barclay (wife of Sir Lancelot Carnegie); Charles Theodore Barclay and Col. Hugh Gurney Barclay, MVO (who married Evelyn Louisa Hogg, daughter of Sir Stuart Saunders Hogg). His father was a Justice of the Peace and served as the High Sheriff of Essex in 1886. His paternal grandparents were Ford Barclay and Esther (née Reynolds) Barclay. His maternal grandfather was Samuel Gurney of the Norwich Gurney family that established Gurney's Bank in 1770, which merged into Barclays in 1896. Among his maternal family was uncle Samuel Gurney (a member of parliament for Penryn & Falmouth); aunt Catherine Gurney, who was the wife of Sir Edward Buxton, 2nd Baronet (an MP for Essex South and East Norfolk); aunt Elizabeth Gurney, who was married to Ernest Christian Ludwig de Bunsen (an Anglo-German writer); and aunt Priscilla, who was married to William Henry Leatham (an MP for Wakefield and West Riding of Yorkshire South). His first cousin, Sir Maurice de Bunsen, 1st Baronet, was the British Ambassador to Spain and Austria. Through his uncle, the Rev. John Gurney, he was a first cousin of John Gurney, the mayor of Norwich who married Isabel Blake-Humfrey. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.