Sir Thomas Beaumont Hohler (15 March 1871 – 23 April 1946) was a 20th-century British diplomat.[1]
Born in London, the sixth and youngest son of Henry Booth Hohler (1835–1916), High Sheriff of Kent (for 1901/02) by his wife Henrietta Wilhelmina Lawes, his elder brother was politician and barrister Sir Gerald Hohler .[2]
Hohler was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, before entering HM Diplomatic Service in 1894.
Appointed Second Secretary in 1901, then First Secretary in 1908 to Constantinople, Hohler was posted to Mexico in 1910 and promoted Counsellor (1915) then Minister Plenipotentiary (1918).
Serving at Mexico City during World War I, he was involved in the interception of the German Zimmermann Telegram used to promote the United States entry into the war. Although acting anonymously at the time, he later identified himself as the mysterious "Mr. H" responsible for intercepting the inflammatory telegram.
In 1920, Hohler was appointed High Commissioner[3] to Budapest, Hungary,[4] where he made a bold effort to convince the British Government to revise the terms of the Trianon Treaty[5] to better favor Hungary.
Then head of HBM Commercial Legation to Bogotá, Colombia,[6] Sir Thomas served in Chile (1924–28) before becoming British Minister to Denmark (1928–1933).
In 1942 his Diplomatic Petrel was published.[7]
Appointed in 1934 a Justice of the Peace for Kent, Sir Thomas was seated at Fawkham Manor where he died in 1946, aged 75.[1]
Hohler in 1922 married Cynthia Elizabeth Violet Astell (1893–1966), younger daughter of William Harvey Astell and the Hon. Elizabeth Maria Vereker, a descendant of the Schuyler, Van Cortlandt and Delancey families from colonial British North America.
Sir Thomas and Lady Hohler had two children: