Sir Alec Seath Kirkbride (1897 - ?) was a British diplomat.
Biography
He began his military career as an officer in the army of general Allenby from 1916 to 1921. In 1920, after the Battle of Maysalun and the fall of Faisal's government of Syria left Transjordan with no central authority, he was dispatched by the British government to Transjordan to help maintain order during this interregnum, and "with a fine sense of history" established the whimsically named National Goverment of Moab in Kerak with himself as President. (His twin brother Alan similarly formed the Ammonite government in Amman.) From 1922 to 1927 and from 1937 to 1939, he was governor of Acre and of the district of Galilee in Palestine. He was Deputy Resident in Transjordan from (1927-1937) and Resident from 1939 to 1946, and was one of King Abdullah's leading British advisors.
In 1946, he was named ambassador of Great Britain to Amman and played an important diplomatic role during the 1948 Palestine war.
From 1952 to 1954, he was ambassador to Libya.
He ended his career as director of the British Bank of the Middle East.
Sources
- Yoav Gelber, Palestine 1948, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 2006, p. 402, ISBN 1845190750
- Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, O Jérusalem, Robert Laffont, 1971, p.870, ISBN 2266106988