ABSTRACT
William conyngham greene came from an Anglo-Irish background. Born on 29 October 1854, he was the elder son of R. J. Greene and the Hon. Louisa, daughter of the third Baron Plunkett and grandson of Richard Wilson Greene. He was educated at Harrow and Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was an open classical scholar in 1873. He gained first class moderations in 1874, a B.A. in 1877 and M.A. in 1880. Greene entered the Foreign Office with a Clerkship on 9 October 1877 when Disraeli was prime minister. He passed an examination in public law in March 1880 and served in Athens, Stuttgart and Darmstadt, The Hague, Brussels and Tehran. In 1884 Greene married Lady Lily Frances Stopford, daughter of the fifth Earl of Courtown; they had two sons and a daughter. The two principal diplomatic appointments held by Greene were in South Africa and Japan. In both cases he assumed post at times of accelerating tension and turbulence. Before turning to his service in Tokyo, it is necessary to consider briefly his experience in Pretoria.
