Passports Of British Consul Arthur Woodhouse

This is a remarkable document lot of ARTHUR WOODHOUSE, ESQ, C.B.E., who held several posts as British Consul. It’s quite unusual to find such documents all related to one Consul, and this makes this document-lot special.

One passport 1908 (him), issued at St. Petersburg
One passport 1913 (him & wife), issued at St. Petersburg
One passport 1912 (wife), issued in London
One French appointment certificate 1906 (for the Island Saint Pierre and Miquelon signed by French President Armand Fallières)
One British appointment certificate, Consul Gothenburg, signed King George V
Three related documents (Foreign Office 1911, Letter 1921 UK Ambassador to Sweden, Certificate of CBE)
One Webster pedigree
A total of nine papers and all are in excellent condition (the lineage has some small corner damage). King George’s appointment certificate is vast & representative!

Some remarks:…

The 1908 passport was issued partly with a typewriter (quite unusual!). Ambassador was Sir Arthur Nicolson, 11th Baronet
The 1912 comes with excellent Russian revenues!
The 1913 British Minister in Sweden at that time was Sir Colville Adrian de Rune Barclay, who informed Woodhouse by letter (included) that he received the CBE. Barclay wrote, “…it’s not suggested that you undertake the journey for the sole and express purpose to receive the decoration…”. Ambassador in St. Petersburg was then Sir George William Buchanan.

His 1913 passport also confirms in handwritten Russian language that:
“British national Arthur William Webster Woodhouse, Consul of His Britannic Majesty in Saint-Petersburg married a second marriage with a widow of state Councillor Maria Petrovna Voznesenskaya on this February 15th, 1913 in Voskresenskaya Church of Sergiy Brotherhood in Saint-Petersburg, in which the church’s seal affixed and witnessed.” of Voskresenskaya Church of Sergiy Brotherhood reverend Alexander Vasilevskiy parish clerk Vasiliy Shitov, Saint-Petersburg, 15th February 1913, № 82

Thanks to my fellow collector Albert V. for translating the Russian part and for the additional information on his biography

Woodhouse, William Webster, Arthur, CBE in 1920; born at sea, 31st May 1867, the eldest son of late HBM Consul Arthur Woodhouse and Mary Rachel, daughter of Richard Webster, Jersey; married 1st 1892, Selina, daughter of Henry’s the Rogers, Odessa; 2nd Marie, widow of Voznesenky by Vladimir, the St. Petersburg; daughter one’s, one’s adopted daughter, (one’s son deceased). Educated: Oxford House Academy, Jersey. Entered Consulate-General at Odesa as a clerk, 1886; employed on the Afghan Boundary Commission, 1887-88; Vice-Consul, Batoum, 1891; Acting Consul-General at Odesa in 1891-94, and 1901 and 1903; Vice-Consul at Odesa in 1893; Acting Vice-Consul Sevastopol 1894 transferred to Nicolaiev 1895; to Boston in 1905; Consul in St. Pierre-Miquelon in 1906; transferred to Thorshavn 1907; St. Petersburg in 1907; Coronation medal in 1911, arrested by Bolshevik Forces, 30Th August 1918; imprisoned in Troubetskoi Bastion until 6th October and left Petrograd 10th October 1918; Consul-General at New Orleans in 1919; Acting Consul-General at Genoa in 1920; HBM’s Consul-General Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1921; retired 1927. Interesting! Woodhouse was during the Russian Revolution Consul-General in Petrograd, the British, and Consul Thomas Preston in Ekaterinburg urged the foreign office to get the Romanov’s out of the country!

(Source) The British National Archives keeps several documents of Consul Woodhouse

Tom Topol | Passport Historian & Author
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