Waddington

Waddington, WILLIAM HENRY, French statesman, was born in Paris, 11th December 1826, son of a naturalised English cotton manufacturer. He had his education at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, and took a classical first-class, with a Chancellor's medal, in 1849. And more English still, he was notable in football at Rugby, and rowed No. 6 in the university boat-race of 1849, when Cambridge won. He next returned to France, and devoted himself to the study of antiquities, extending his journeys to Asia Minor, Syria, and Cyprus. In 1865 he was elected to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. In February 1871 he was returned by Aisne to the National Assembly, giving a steady support to Thiers. From 1876 till 1885 he sat as senator for Aisne. He served in 1876-77, as minister of Foreign Affairs (1877), plenipotentiary at the Berlin Congress (1878), president of the Council (1879), and was ambassador at London from 1883 to 1892. He died 13th January 1894.