Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. American journalist John Gunther described Masaryk as “a brave, honest, turbulent, and impulsive man”. Born in Prague in 1886 as the son of the future leader of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Masaryk fought for Austro-Hungary in World War I. He then entered positions with the government of the new nation of Czechoslovakia, serving as minister-plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom for thirteen years from 1925.
There, he dealt with criticism of Czechoslovakia’s very existence from press baron Lord Rothermere in 1927, before then encountering the rising threat of Nazism to his nation. He was relieved at the abdication of Edward VIII (whom he saw as too sympathetic to Nazi rule) but resigned after the Munich Agreement and appeasement policies adopted by Neville Chamberlain’s government, which he detested partly due to the limited involvement the Czechoslovak government had in the proceedings. In World War II, Masaryk broadcast to the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia throughout the conflict via BBC radio. He also served as Foreign Minister in the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. He travelled with Edvard Beneš (the President of Czechoslovakia) to Moscow to meet Joseph Stalin, where it was agreed that Czechoslovakia would retain its autonomy whilst having a Soviet-aligned foreign policy.
