ELIOT, SIR CHARLES NORTON EDGCUMBE (1864-1931), British diplomatist and writer, was educated at Cheltenham and Balliol college, Oxford, and became a fellow of Trinity college. He entered the diplomatic service in 1886 and acted as charge d'affaires in Morocco in 1892-93, in Bulgaria, 1895 and in Serbia, 1897. In Jan. 1901 he was appointed high commissioner of the British East Africa Protectorate, but re signed in Jan. 1904, being opposed to the grant of a concession to the East Africa Syndicate, which he held to be detrimental to genuine colonization. For some years he abandoned the diplomatic service, but in Aug. 1918 he was named high commissioner in Siberia, and in Nov. 1919 became ambassador to Japan, being thereupon sworn of the Privy Council. He was created G.C.M.G. in 1923, and in 1926, the year of his retirement, was appointed a member of the Japanese Imperial Academy, being the first for eigner to receive this honour.
Eliot's works include: Turkey in Europe (1900) ; Letters from the Far East (1907) ; Hinduism and Buddhism (1921) . He wrote also The East Africa Protectorate (19o5 ), and A Finnish Gram mar (189o).