Abstract: Much has been written about the Siege of the Legations in Peking (Beijing) in 1900, both at the time and later by historians looking back over these accounts and official papers subsequently released to the public. There is a wealth of first-hand diaries and testimonies of the Siege written by those who were actually there, as well as contemporary newspaper reports, and even semi-fictionalised versions. This article examines three diaries kept by members of the British diplomatic corps, namely: the British Minister, Sir Claude MacDonald, and two Student Interpreters from the Consular Service, Lancelot Giles and William Meyrick Hewlett; and endeavours to look at these three sources in relation to a range of contemporary material – other diaries, newspaper reports, fictionalised accounts, photographs and other pictorial depictions, wherever this seems relevant and appropriate. In looking at the private, first-hand accounts of these individuals this article examines the views of three Westerners whose vantage point we might reasonably expect to have bridged the cultural divide between the two distinct cultures of the besiegers and those besieged. It was, after all, the job of the British diplomatic corps – from the chief representative, the British Minister, to the most junior members of the Legation staff, the Student Interpreters – to understand, interact, and essentially mediate between Britain and China.