Esmé William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith, (15 September 1863 – 1 August 1939) was a British diplomat. He served as British Ambassador to the United States between 1924 and 1930. He was one of Britain's most influential diplomats of the early part of the twentieth century. With a gift for languages and a skilled diplomat, Howard is described in his biography as an integral member of the small group of men who made and implemented British foreign policy between 1900 and 1930, a critical transitional period in Britain's history as a world power. Early life Howard was born on 15 September 1863 at Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland. He was the youngest son of the former Charlotte Caroline Georgina Long and Henry Howard, an MP for Steyning and New Shoreham. He was the nephew of Henrietta Anna Molyneux-Howard, wife of Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon. His elder brothers were Henry Howard, later an MP for Penrith, and Sir Stafford Howard, later an MP for Thornbury and Cumberland East who served as Under-Secretary of State for India in 1886. His paternal grandfather was Lord Henry Howard-Molyneux-Howard, the younger brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk. His maternal grandparents were Henry Lawes Long and Lady Catharine Long (a daughter of Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford and sister of Horatio Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford). Howard was educated at Harrow School. Career In 1885, he passed the Diplomatic Service examination, and was assistant private secretary to the Earl of Carnarvon as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland before being attached to the British Embassy in Rome. In 1888, he arrived in Berlin as the embassy's third secretary, and after retiring from the Diplomatic Service four years later, he was made assistant private secretary to the Earl of Kimberley, the Foreign Secretary at the time. Howard was a talented linguist who would spoke 10 languages and chose to retire from the diplomatic service in 1890 out of boredom. For the next 13 years, Howard lived a life of irregular employment, spending his time prospecting for gold in South Africa, working as a researcher for the social reformer Charles Booth, making two lengthy trips to Morocco, working as the private secretary to Lord Kimberley in 1894–1895, frequently visiting his sister at her estate in Italy and running unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate in the 1892 election. Greatly concerned with social problems, Howard