Sir Sydney Armitage Armitage-Smith
(1876-1932), Civil servantSitter in 1 portrait
Sir Sydney Armitage Armitage-Smith
by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, 1932
NPG x163659
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Rosalind Cutler (nee Armitage-Smith)
04 December 2020, 10:38
lived and worked in Paris as high up civil servant for British government at Versailles Peace Talks 1920s
involved in Iran oil deals in early part of 19 c.
husband of Imogen Alma Mary Ramsay
John Morgan
23 May 2020, 16:18
Wrote a biography of John of Gaunt (published 1904).
Rosalind Cutler nee Armitage-Smith
04 December 2020, 10:47
Sir Sydney Armitage Armitage-Smith, KBE, CB, was born on 3rd September 1876, and educated at University College School London, and then New College, Oxford, where he gained a First Class Degree in Classical Moderations in 1897, and a First Class Degree in Literature and Humanities in 1899, and then a Second Class Degree in Modern History in 1900, being appointed a Fellow of University College London in 1902, and then joined H.M. Treasury in 1902, being appointed the Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1908, and a Member of the West African Currency Committee in 1911 to 1912. He was appointed Secretary to the Royal Commission on Civil Service in 1912 to 1914, and then Assistant Secretary to His Majesty’s Treasury in 1913, a position he then held till he was appointed Member of the Royal Commission on Decimal Coinage in 1918, and was appointed a Companion of the Civil Division of the Order of the Bath in 1918. Armitage-Smith was then made a Member of the Royal Commission on Income Tax in 1919, being appointed a Representative of H.M. Treasury at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919, he was then appointed Financial Advisor to the Persian Government from 1920 to 1921 and for his service awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Lion and Sword in 1921. He was appointed Secretary General to the War Reparation Commission from 1924 to 1930, and it was in this role that he met with, and was presented with the signed photograph of the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini. For his latter services he was also Knighted in 1929, when he was made Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Armitage-Smith was then appointed Commission for the Enquiry into the Caribs of Dominica and the financial mission to the Leewards Islands and St Lucia in 1931, and in a similar role to the Tanganyika Territory in 1932. He died on 31st October 1932.