Slavko Grujić | |
|---|---|
Славко Ј. Грујић | |
 Slavko J. Grujić c. 1930 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 February 1871 |
| Died | 24 March 1937(1937-03-24) (aged 66) London, United Kingdom |
| Spouse | Mabel Grujić |
| Parent |
|
| Alma mater | Sorbonne University (PhD, 1897) |
| Occupation | Diplomat |
Slavko J. GrujićKBE[1] (Serbian Cyrillic:Славко Ј. Грујић; 15 February 1871 – 24 March 1937) was a Serbian diplomat,marshal of the court, and philanthropist. A skilled diplomat he was one of the main contributors of the response to theAustrian ultimatum of 23 July 1914, which some scholars have called "a masterpiece of diplomatic equivocation". After theFirst World War, he became Yugoslavia's first ambassador to theUnited States returning to serve asMarshal of the Court toKing Peter II of Yugoslavia. He died inLondon, while serving as ambassador of Yugoslavia to the United Kingdom, in 1937.
Slavko Grujić[a] was born in Belgrade,Principality of Serbia. He was the fourth son, of eight children, to Serbian statesman and diplomatJevrem Grujić, his father was a central figure of theSt Andrew's Day Assembly and the instigator of Serbia's first law on the National Assembly. Slavko Grujić finished high school inMarseille, France, before studying at theSorbonne University in Paris, where he received hisDoctor of Law degree (doctorat en droit) in 1897. He began his diplomatic career as a clerk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Serbia in January 1898.[3]
Grujić was sent as attaché to Serbia's embassy inConstantinople, then toAthens asChargé d'affaires.[4] A few years later Grujić was sent to represent the Serbian Kingdom inPetrograd.[3]
In early October 1908, during theBosnian Crisis, he was Chargé d'affaires in London, when the Dual Monarchy ofAustria-Hungary announced the annexation ofBosnia and Herzegovina. One of Grujić's proposals, attached to the protest of the Serbian government, was the concession of a railway to theAdriatic coast, and on the Bosnian side, a revision of the Serbian frontier.[5]
On the eve of theFirst World War, Grujić was Secretary-General of the SerbianMinistry of Foreign Affairs, and on 30 June met with the Austro-Hungarian secretary of the Habsburg legation in Belgrade, Wilhelm Ritter von Storck, to discuss the Sarajevo assassinations.[6] On 23 July 1914, in the absence ofNikola Pašić, Grujić and acting prime ministerLazar Paču receive from Austrian ministerBaron Wladimir Giesl von Gieslingen theultimatum of Austria-Hungary, Slavko Grujić was one of the main contributors of the reply to the Austrian note.[7]According toChristopher Clark, professor of History at theUniversity of Cambridge, the Serbian reply was "a masterpiece of diplomatic equivocation". Baron Alexander von Musulin, Austria's special envoy, who had written the first draft of the ultimatum, described it as "the most brilliant specimen of diplomatic skill" that he had ever encountered.[8]
After thegreat retreat, Slavko Grujić organised the transfer of refugees from the Albanian coast toCorfu and France. As one of the closest collaborators of Prime MinisterNikola Pašić, at the start of January 1916, Grujić was sent toBrindisi as the "Serbian delegate for refugees". In Brindisi, he met with the commanders of the Italian navy to convince them to send ships to Medua. More than 5,000 refugees were evacuated safely including 700 schoolchildren sent toMarseille.[9]
In 1916 he became the first Serbian Ambassador toSwitzerland where together with Mable he actively organised humanitarian help to occupied Serbia with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.On 13 January 1919, Slavko Grujić became the first ambassador of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of "Yugoslavia") inWashington, a position he held until 1922.[10] On 10 February 1919, Acting Secretary of StateFrank Polk wrote to Ambassador to the United States Slavko Grujić that the United States Government recognized that the Serbian Legation will thereafter be known as the Legation for the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.[11]
Serbia emerged with renewed vitality, stronger than ever, because of the realization of the aspirations of all the Yugoslavs to be united into one Kingdom. The allied victories of 1918 in which Serbia, as the whole world knows, played an important military role, resulted in the liberation of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes whom Austria had held for a century under her cruel yoke. Serbia lived, but Austria-Hungary, who had meant to strike a death blow at her small neighbor, collapsed.[12]
— Slavko Grujić, Yugoslavia's ambassador to the United States. 1919
Upon his return to the country, Grujić actively participated in the work of various humanitarian societies. In 1934, after the death ofKing Alexander I, he became marshal of the court of the young KingPeter II of Yugoslavia. In 1935, Grujić was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at theCourt of St. James, i.e. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and at the same time to theNetherlands. He died in London of heart failure on 24 March 1937.[3]
In 1901, at a ball at the American embassy in Athens, he met his future wife, 21-year-old American archeologist,Mabel Dunlop, they married and returned to Belgrade where he became secretary to the Serbian Cabinet. During the Great War, Mabel organised fundraisings in America for Serbia crossing the ocean more than twenty times by steamer, she founded the Serbian Hospital Fund and a baby hospital in Niš. After the war, Mabel and Slavko Grujić managed to receive $100,000 from the Carnegie Foundation in 1920, to build theUniversity LibrarySvetozar Marković. According toBarbara Tuchman, Mable Grujić was also recruiting agents for theBritish Naval Intelligence during the first and second world war.[13]
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Office created | Kingdom of Yugoslavia Ambassador to the United States 1919–1922 | Succeeded by Unknown |
| Preceded by Unknown | Kingdom of Yugoslavia Ambassador to the Netherlands 1935–1937 | Succeeded by Unknown |
| Preceded by Unknown | Kingdom of Yugoslavia Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1935–1937 | Succeeded by Unknown |
| Court offices | ||
| Preceded by Aleksandar Dimitrijević | Marshal of the Royal Court of Yugoslavia 1934–1935 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
