According to a record at the Fairlynch Museum (1), in 1938 Edward Thurstan was living in Lansdowne House, 37 Exmouth Road, Budleigh Salterton and in the 1946/7 Street Directory “Messrs. E W P & J D B P Thurstan” are listed at the same address.  Edward Thurstan retired after a career in the consular service in 1937 (2) and probably had a hand in one of the most significant events to occur in WWI. 

Thurstan was born in Croydon in 1881 and in that year he was living in Colosseum Terrace, St. Pancras with his parents, 2-year old sister Anna, and both grandmothers.  His father Edward was a general practitioner who had been born in Ceylon.  In 1891 Edward can be found at a small preparatory school in Tonbridge and later went on to Bradfield. 

He entered the Consular Service and was vice-consul in New Orleans in 1906 and was next appointed to be Vice-Consul for the Kasai District of the Congo in 1909 (3).  From there he was seconded to Zanzibar to become secretary to Mr F.U. Baiton who was First Minister to the Sultan of Zanzibar and also to be the Director of Public Education (2,4).  Zanzibar was a British Protectorate from 1890-1963. 

In 1913 Thurstan was appointed Consul at Calais (3) and in October 1915 he moved to Mexico City as Consul-General (3) and it was during this appointment that he was able to render a great service to his country.  

President Wilson had resisted becoming involved in the conflict and the Allies wanted America to enter on their side and the Germans were trying by all means to keep them neutral.  In January of 1917 the German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to Bernstorff, the German Ambassador in Washington, instructing him to send it on to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt. 

Eckhardt was told that he should offer the Mexican President financial and material support if Mexico attacked the USA, and also give consent for Mexico to regain the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, which had been conquered by the USA in the war of 1846–1848.  Zimmerman hoped to keep the Americans involved with their own problems (and also incidentally hoped to get the Japanese involved with the Mexicans).  

British Intelligence by this time had broken several of the German diplomatic codes and was aware of the contents of the telegram (5).  The problem was that they didn’t want the Germans to know that the codes had been broken and needed to suggest that the telegram and its decoding had taken place in North America. 

By chance the British Embassy in Mexico City had a source inside the local telegraph office. The British Chargé d’Affaires from December 1910 to September 1916, Thomas Hohler, had set up this informant and Edward Thurstan, as Hohler’s successor, continued to tap this source and, although there is some confusion as to the sequence of events, a copy of the telegram was sent to London.  

The telegram was received on February 10th 1917, and, when the time was ripe, was passed to the American ambassador in London, Walter Hines Page.  He sent it to Woodrow Wilson, who was furious, and he asked the US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, to give it to the press for publication on 1st March 1917.  The ensuing public outcry was one of the factors that eventually led to the declaration of war against Germany by the US Congress on 6 April 1917 (5,6). 

In the War Honours list announced in The Times on February 13, 1917 we find “The King has been pleased to give directions for the following promotion in, and appointments to, the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George..”, and one of those listed was EDWARD WILLIAM PAGET THURSTAN, Esq. H.M. Consul-General and Chargé d'Affaires at Mexico City, who was made C.M.G. 

After the war he was Acting Consul General in Algiers 1919-20, and then the Consul General in Cologne 1920, Rotterdam 1924, Genoa 1927-35, and finally, Milan 1935-7 (2). 

In 1921 he married Christina Boyd Thompson the daughter of J H Boyd Thompson of Reston Hall Westmorland, and they had one son, John P.D.B Thurstan (6).  John was living with his father in Budleigh Salterton in 1939 & 1946(7).  Christina died in 1944 (2) and Edward died in Stepney in1947 aged 66 (7).  Edward was for a time the Chairman of the Gentleman’s Club in Fore Street. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010

(1)“Local Roads & Houses” Vol.2. File in Local History Room at Fairlynch Museum

(2)Who’s Who

(3)London Gazette

(4)The Straits Times, 19 November 1913

(5)The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman. Bantam Books 1971

(6)http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann

(7)FreeBMD.org

(8)Town Directories.

95 BS-B-00029 Biography any