David Richard Morier

The third son of Isaac Morier, Consul-General to the Turkey Company at Constantinople, he was born in Smyrna on 8 January 1784 and educated at Harrow School before entering the diplomatic service.

In January 1804, at the age of 20, he was appointed secretary to a political mission sent by the British government to Ali Pasha and the Turkish governors of the Morea and other provinces, with a view to counteracting the influence of France in south-east Europe.

He was despatched on special service to Egypt, where he was instructed to negotiate for the release of the British prisoners captured by Muhammad Ali during the Alexandria expedition of 1807.

Back in Constantinople, with the exception of a mission to Tabriz from October 1809 to the following summer, he remained at the embassy, first under Adair, and then (1810–12) as secretary of legation under his successor, Stratford Canning.

In the same year he attended the foreign minister at the Congress of Vienna, and, when the Duke of Wellington succeeded Castlereagh, Morier remained as one of the secretaries.

The consul-generalship was abolished, and Morier retired on a pension 5 April 1832, but was almost immediately (5 June) appointed minister plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederated States.