Alexander von Benckendorff (diplomat)

Count Alexander Philipp Konstantin Ludwig von Benckendorff (Russian: Александр Константинович Бенкендорф, Alexander Konstantinovich Benkendorf; 1 August 1849 – 11 January 1917) was a Russian diplomat, of Baltic German heritage, who served as ambassador to Denmark and the United Kingdom.

The Copenhagen post gave him a vantage point for watching the principal moving powers of European politics since the matrimonial alliances of the Danish royal family occasionally brought together in a friendly family circle the widow of Alexander III, Nicholas II and the Prince of Wales who was to become King Edward VII.

In this way, Count von Benckendorff received his initiation into the spirit of an Anglo-Russian rapprochement even before it actually resulted in an entente.

[2] Alexander von Benckendorff died on 11 January 1917 from influenza[3][4] and was buried in Westminster Cathedral, where he had worshipped weekly.

Their son Jasper Maurice Alexander Ridley (London, 20 April 1913 – Killed in Italy, 13 December 1943) married Helen Laura Cressida Bonham Carter (London, 22 April 1917 – Salisbury, 10 June 1998), a granddaughter of former British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith.