Editing Cecil Spring Rice (section)

==Writings and friendships==
[[File:Theodore Roosevelt by the Pach Bros.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Spring Rice maintained a close friendship with President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and served as best man at his second wedding.]]
Spring Rice was a poet throughout his adult life.<ref name=burton/> In 1918, he rewrote the words of his most notable poem, ''Urbs Dei (The City of God)'' or ''The Two Fatherlands'', to become the text for the [[hymn]] ''[[I&nbsp;Vow to Thee My Country]]''. The hymn was first performed in 1925, after Spring Rice's death and has since become a widely recognised British anthem. His poetry was published in the 1922 edition of ''[[Poems of Today]]'', and has since been published in several other poetry collections.

He became acquainted with [[Theodore Roosevelt]] on a trans-Atlantic crossing from New York in 1886, and the two men quickly became close friends and confidants. He has been described as "one of President Theodore Roosevelt's most ardent and loyal admirers"<ref>{{cite book | title=The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt | publisher=Modern Library | author=Morris, Edmund | year=2001 | location=7265 of 20280 (Page 356) | isbn=978-0-307-77782-9| edition=Kindle }}</ref> and acted as Roosevelt's best man in Roosevelt's wedding to [[Edith Roosevelt|Edith Carow]].<ref name="theodorerooseveltcenter.org"/> Roosevelt became the godfather of Spring Rice's son in 1908. Spring Rice memorably remarked about Roosevelt: "You must always remember that the president is about six".<ref>{{cite book | title=The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt | publisher=Modern Library | author=Morris, Edmund | year=2001 | location=366 of 20280 | isbn=978-0-307-77782-9| edition=Kindle }}</ref> The two men continued to write to each other until Spring Rice's death, and their close relationship undoubtedly added to the latter's diplomatic clout in the US.

He was a close friend of [[Sir&nbsp;Ignatius Valentine Chirol]], a British journalist and later diplomat, and [[Ronald Munro Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar]], with whom he corresponded for many years.<ref>{{cite news |date=12 October 1929 |title=Sir Cecil Spring Rice |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/12th-october-1929/23/sir-cecil-spring-rice |newspaper=The Spectator |location=London |access-date=29 July 2016 }}</ref> One of his closest political friends was the Irish nationalist, [[John Dillon]]; his unwavering sense of duty attempted to overcome his sister's very public espousal of nationalist causes and friendships within the hierarchy of Sinn Féin.  The personal moral overtones and private contradictions failed to dent an overwhelming sense of obligation to the British Empire.  However it may have informed his uneasy relationship with the [[Balfour Mission]].<ref>British Sinews of War, pp. 7–9</ref>

A fluent speaker of [[Persian language|Persian]] (as well as German and French), Spring Rice was responsible for translating numerous Persian poems into English. Spring Rice's letters and poems were collected together by his daughter, Lady Arthur, and many are now held by [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]. Further papers, relating to his diplomatic postings, and diaries of his travels in Japan, are held by the [[Churchill Archives Centre]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Collection: The Papers of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice|url=https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1465|url-status=live|access-date=2021-09-30|website=Churchill Archives Centre, ArchiveSearch|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930113853/https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1465 |archive-date=30 September 2021 }}</ref>