Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, KG, GCB, PC was a British diplomat who became best known as the longtime British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. A cousin of George Canning, he served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to the United States of America between 1820 and 1824 and held his first appointment as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1825 and 1828. He intermittently represented several constituencies in parliament between 1828 and 1842. In 1841 he was re-appointed as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, a position he held for the next 17 years. In 1852 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. Canning's hopes of high political office were repeatedly dashed.