John Balfour

United Kingdom state institutions 1894–1983 ○ Died

British diplomat who signed the protocol to the Hungarian armistice in Moscow for the United Kingdom in January 1945

The son of the Conservative politician Charles Balfour, he was an Oxford student learning German in Freiberg when the First World War began and spent the whole war in Ruhleben internment camp. In the Foreign Office he was posted to Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Moscow and Washington. On 20 January 1945 in Moscow he signed the protocol to the Hungarian armistice for the United Kingdom. He became ambassador to Argentina in 1948 and was ambassador to Spain from 1951 to 1954; a hispanophile, he was an ardent opponent of Franco's regime. In 1983 he published his memoirs, Not Too Correct an Aureole.

Also known as: Sir John Balfour