Edwin Chapman-Andrews

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Sir Edwin Arthur Chapman-Andrews (9 September 1903 – 10 February 1980) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to Lebanon from 1952 to 1956 and to Sudan from 1956 to 1961.

He was born in Devon, the son of Arthur John Chapman-Andrews and Ada Allen, and studied at Hele's School in Exeter, University College London, and the Sorbonne. He began his career in 1926 in the Levant Consular Service, with postings in Port Said, Cairo, Suez, Addis Ababa, Kirkuk and Rawandiz, Harar, and Cairo again. During World War II he served with the Royal Sussex Regiment and acted as liaison officer on the Middle East staff, briefly returning to Addis Ababa with Emperor Haile Selassie.

After the war he worked at the Foreign Office, helping to reorganize the diplomatic service. From 1947 to 1951 he was minister at the British Embassy in Cairo, then minister and head of mission at Beirut in 1951, and was promoted to ambassador in 1952, serving in Beirut until 1956. He then became ambassador to Khartoum, and was consul-general from 1959 until his retirement in 1961. He was well regarded in Lebanon and Sudan for understanding their difficulties and aspirations.

Following diplomacy, he worked for Massey-Ferguson from 1962 to 1977, becoming Director of Exports in 1964. He married Sadie Nixon in 1931 and they had four children.

Chapman-Andrews received several honours: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1936), Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (1948), Knight Commander of the same order (1953), Knight of the Order of St John (1955), and Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great. He died on 10 February 1980, aged 76.