Christopher Steel

Sir Christopher "Kit" Eden Steel GCMG MVO ( February 12, 1903 - September 17, 1973 ) was a British diplomat .

Life and activity

Steel was educated at Wellington College and Hertford College, Oxford University.

Steel entered the British diplomatic service in 1927: he was admitted to the foreign service with a Civil Service Certificate as 3rd Secretary with a date of admission on October 28, 1927 and on November 7, 1927 assigned to the London Foreign Office .

On November 14, 1929 Steel was transferred to Rio de Janeiro . There he acted temporarily as British chargé d'affaires in 1930 . He was transferred to Paris on April 21, 1931. There he was promoted to Secretary 2nd class in the diplomatic service with effect from November 7, 1932.

On March 24, 1934, Steel was transferred to The Hague, where he was employed as chargé d'affaires during 1934 and 1935. From April 1, 1935 to 1936, he served as the deputy private secretary of the Prince of Wales, the then British Crown Prince, later Edward VIII.

On July 21, 1936, Steel was transferred to the British Embassy in Berlin as 2nd Embassy Secretary , where he worked with interruptions until 1939. In May 1937 he attended the coronation of George VI. in London, where he was placed as a mentor to the Lithuanian representative during the coronation ceremonies. And from December 15, 1937 to February 17, 1938 he was assigned to the British Mission in Stockholm as an employee. In 1938 he temporarily took over the duties of a business agent. On October 26, 1938, he was finally raised to the rank of Secretary 1st class in the diplomatic service.

On June 15, 1939, Steel was transferred to the London Foreign Office. From there he was sent to Cairo on December 31, 1942 . On November 26, 1943 Steel was promoted to the rank of Acting Counselor. On September 28, 1944, his use as an employee of the Minister Resident in the Mediterranean was confirmed. A few months later, on December 5, 1944, he was assigned as a Political Liaison Officer to the staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Headquarters of the Allied Forces in Europe , Dwight D. Eisenhower .

On November 26, 1945, Steel was appointed head of the Political Division of the Allied Control Commission for Germany (British Element), a post he would hold until 1947. In this position he served as the official deputy political advisor to the British Military Governor for Germany. At the same time, he was promoted to level 6 officer in the diplomatic service on this date. The promotion to civil servant level 5 took place on June 1, 1947.

Under the military governor of the British zone of occupation in Germany Brian Robertson , Steel acted as the first political advisor from November 1, 1947. In this function he belonged to a delegation that was to lead negotiations on the occupation statute to an end on January 17, 1949 at government level. During this time he reached on January 1, 1948 the rank of civil servant 4th level (grade 4 officer) in the diplomatic service.

On December 1, 1949, Steel was appointed Deputy British High Commissioner in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Villa Heckenfels in Bad Honnef served as his residence in this function .

On October 12, 1950, Steel was appointed envoy to the British Embassy in Washington . From November 1, 1950 to August 1953, he worked there as political minister . At the same time he was promoted to a third level officer (Grade 3 officer). During 1951 and 1952 he served repeatedly as chargé d'affaires at the Washington Embassy.

On August 18, 1953, Steel was appointed representative of Great Britain to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in Paris.

Later he was British Ambassador to the North Atlantic Council .

On February 8, 1957, Steel took up the post of British Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, based in Bonn. He held this until 1963. He then chaired the Anglo-German Association from 1966 to 1973.

family

Steel married Catherine Clive in 1932, a daughter of George Sidney Cliege (1874-1959), who had been British military governor in the demilitarized Rhineland after the First World War and in this capacity had maintained close contacts with the then mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer , with whom his son-in-law had Adenauer had risen to West German head of government, worked together as ambassador in the 1950s.

literature

• The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book , 1963, p. 429. (Overview of his career up to 1953)

Web links

Commons : Christopher Steel  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tiger in retirement , Der Spiegel , October 3, 1962
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Helmut Vogt : Guardians of the Bonn Republic: The Allied High Commissioners 1949–1955 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70139-8 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Frederick Millar	British ambassador to Germany 1957–1963	Frank Kenyon Roberts