John Harington Gubbins
John Harington Gubbins (
1852-
1929) was a British linguist, consular official and diplomat.
Gubbins attended
Harrow School and would have gone on to
Cambridge University, had family finances allowed.
Gubbins was appointed a
student interpreter in the
British Japan Consular Service in
1871; English Secretary to the Conference at Tokyo for the Revision of the Treaties, after
Ernest Satow left Japan in 1883; and on June 1, 1889, became Japanese Secretary at
Tokyo. He was employed in London at the
Foreign Office from February to July 1894 in the
Aoki-
Kimberley negotiations which resulted in the
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation (
July 16,
1894). He was, especially in retirement, a close friend of Satow's.
Despite having no university degree, Gubbins was awarded an honorary Master's degree from
Balliol College and was made Lecturer in
Japanese language at
Oxford University (1909-12). Lack of pupils led to his position being terminated.
He was the father of
Colin Gubbins.
*
Joseph Henry Longford* Ian Nish, "John Harrington Gubbins, 1852-1929," chap. 8 in
Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, vol. 2, edited by Ian Nish (Japan Library, 1997).
* Private correspondence from J.H. Gubbins to Sir
Ernest Satow, 1908-27, UK Public Record Office (PRO 30/33 11/8, 11/9 and 11/10).
