Consul of Austria-Hungary

[sue2white]

I have found reference to a Henry Montague Blyth in 1897 in the London Gazette, stating that the Queen had approved him as Consul of Austria-Hungary at Port Loius Mauritius.

I can find no more information about him. Any pointers would be great please.

[Elwyn Soutter]

It seems slightly strange. You would expect the Austro-Hungarian authorities to have appointed him as their Consul, not Queen Victoria. Perhaps as he was a British Subject she had to give her consent to him being a Consul for another country.

Where countries have significant diplomatic and commercial interests in a place they usually open an Embassy or Consulate with salaried staff from their own diplomatic service. However where the interests are not so significant, they sometimes appoint an Honorary Consul, authorised to carry out certain lower level diplomatic functions eg registering births or issuing emergency passports, but with instructions to refer more complex matters to the nearest Embassy. Usually Honorary Consuls are local businessmen, they need not be a national of the country they represent, and all they get is an annual payment (an Honorarium) plus expenses, and a brass plaque to put on their office door. Could Mr Blyth have been an Honorary Consul like this?

I assume any record of his work for the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be in their diplomatic records if they still exist given that the empire was dismantled at the end of the 1st world war. You could ask the Austrian or Hungarian Embassies, I suppose.

[Jan1954]

This is probably his birth:
March quarter 1868, Kensington District, volume 1a, page 12, Henry Montague BLYTH

[Coromandel]

If you search Google Books for "Henry Montague Blyth", he pops up (in snippet view only) in a publication by the Österreichischen Staatsarchivs.

Column 1: Henry Montague BLYTH
Column 2: [blank]
Column 3: HK 27, Mai 1897-13, August 1914

Unfortunately none of the rest of the page is visible, nor can I see the bit where the abbreviations are explained.

Google Books also finds a mention of him in a book about the history of Mauritius: Maurice, une île et son passé. This time none of the text at all is visible.

[Kerrywood]

According to incoming passenger lists, Henry M BLYTH returned to the UK from Natal on the "Dover Castle" arriving Plymouth on 3 Jan 1915, described as a Merchant, aged 47, with wife Minnie aged 35, and children Norcen? E. aged 7 and Henry E. aged 4. Last place of residence was Mauritius.

According to the probate calendar, he was of 57 Westbourne-terrace Middlesex and died 8 January 1917. Probate 28 February to Henry Wilfred Currie and Frederick Charles Calvert gentlemen.
Effects £35,607 6s. 2d.

Deaths
Mar Qtr 1917
BLYTH Henry _ aged 49
Paddington 1a 55

[Coromandel]

From England Births & Christenings on FamilySearch:

Henry Monteque Blyth, son of Henry David Blyth and Elizabeth, bapt. 20 Jan. 1868, Paddington Holy Trinity.

(N.B. in the transcript, his middle name is spelled with a Q not a G)

You may be able to find an image of the original parish register on London Parish Registers on Ancestry.

[sue2white]

Thank you for all this.
I do not have a sub to Ancestry at the moment.
I would be interested to find out what his father's occupation was.

[Kerrywood]

I would be interested to find out what his father's occupation was.

Engineer, of 46 Porchester Square.

[Coromandel]

A possibility for his parents' marriage:

Henry David Blyth married in the first quarter of 1867, Kensington district: spouse either Elizabeth BARRON or Emma BROOKS.

[Coromandel]

Engineer, of 46 Porchester Square.

Perhaps this is a reference to him?

Re. the Sun Iron Works (or Sun Engine Works) and Cassell's Patent Lava Stone Works in Tooke Town, Northern Millwall:

'A few years later [i.e. a few years after 1869-70] both works were acquired by Alfred Blyth, junior, and Henry David Blyth of J. & A. Blyth Ltd, of Limehouse, engineers, ship repairers and boiler makers. With the winding-up of the company in 1878– 82, the main site entered upon another phase of industrial pioneering, carried out by the Electrical Power Storage Company Ltd....'

From 'Northern Millwall: Tooke Town', Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994)
online at https://www.
british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46514