John Birch (diplomat)

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Sir John Allan Birch KCVO CMG (* May 24, 1935 - † May 6, 2020 ) was a British diplomat who was Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York City between 1986 and 1989 with the rank of Ambassador and then from 1989 until 1995 was ambassador to Hungary .

Life

Military service, studies and beginning of the diplomatic career

Birch graduated after attending the 1890 by Quakers founded Leighton Park School from 1954 to 1956 his military service (national service) the Line Infantry - Regiment (Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own)) and was there on June 4, 1955 lieutenant (Second Lieutenant ) promoted. This was followed by studies at Corpus Christi College of the University of Cambridge , during which time he worked in the Cambridge Union and the United Nations Association . In 1959 he entered the diplomatic service (Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service) and found his first foreign assignment from 1960 to 1963 as Third Secretary at the Embassy in France . There he was entrusted by the then Ambassador Pierson John Dixon with the observation and reporting on the French political left , in particular the Parti communiste français (PCF) and the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), closely associated with this union .

In 1963, Birch moved to the General Commission in Singapore , which became independent from the United Kingdom on September 1, 1963 and which had joined the Malaysia Federation under Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew . His superior there was Philip Moore , who after independence and the temporary assumption of diplomatic responsibility by the High Commissioner in Malaysia, Anthony Head , worked there as Deputy or Acting High Commissioner. This was followed by a use at the Embassy in Romania between 1965 and 1968 and at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva from 1968 to 1970 . During a subsequent use of the Ministry of Foreign and Commonwealth affairs concerning ( Foreign and Commonwealth Office ) in the by Iain Sutherland led South Asia dealt -Referat it with the situation in the region after the Bangladesh Liberation War and the third Indo-Pakistani war in 1971 . On March 26, 1972 he was accepted into the higher diplomatic service.

After the experience gained there, Birch was transferred to the embassy in Afghanistan as consul on June 25, 1973 . Immediately after his arrival there, on July 17, 1973, King Mohammed Sahir Shah was ousted by Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan , who then proclaimed the Republic of Afghanistan and became its president. After his employment there, he completed a course at the Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) in London in 1977 and was subsequently political advisor to the British delegation at the UN disarmament negotiations in Geneva between 1977 and 1980 and also a negotiator in a working group for negotiations of the text of the nuclear test ban treaty .

Expert for Eastern Europe and promotion to ambassador

In 1980, after completing a Hungarian language course at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London (UCL) , Birch took on the role of Counselor at the Embassy in the People's Republic of Hungary , which was then headed by Bryan Cartledge .

After his return to Great Britain, Birch was head of the Foreign Office's Eastern Europe Division between 1983 and 1986 , after the division for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe previously headed by Nigel Broomfield had been split up. In this position he recently dealt with the effects of the policy of openness ( glasnost ) and restructuring ( perestroika ) begun by Mikhail Gorbachev on the Warsaw Pact states . In 1985 he was also assigned in this capacity to conduct secret talks with the People's Socialist Republic of Albania about a possible resumption of diplomatic relations, which were broken off in 1946 due to the Corfu Canal incident . These talks took place in the Albanian embassy in France, which at the time still had diplomatic relations with Albania.

In 1986 he took over the post of Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York City with the rank of Ambassador until 1989 and was thus representative of the then head of the Permanent Mission John Adam Thomson and, since 1987, of his successor Crispin Tickell . On January 1, 1987, he became Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG).

Most recently, in 1989, Birch succeeded Leonard Appleyard as ambassador to Hungary. During this time the upheaval of Hungary occurred after the fall of the Iron Curtain and communism. In doing so, he was able to build on the relationships established during his earlier use in Hungary, such as with the dissident Miklós Haraszti . During his use there he was beaten on May 7, 1993 to Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order , so that from then on he carried the suffix "Sir". He held the post of ambassador to Hungary for six years until he retired in 1995 and was subsequently replaced by Christopher William Long , who had been ambassador to Egypt until then .

After retiring from the diplomatic service, he worked from 1995 to 2004 as Director of the British Association for Central and Eastern Europe . He was also a temporary member of the board of directors of the private security and military company Aegis Defense Services .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for John Birch. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 40555, HMSO, London, August 5, 1955, p. 4542 ( PDF , accessed June 15, 2016, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 45690, HMSO, London, June 1, 1972, p. 6578 ( PDF , accessed June 15, 2016, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46121, HMSO, London, November 6, 1973, p. 13192 ( PDF , accessed June 15, 2016, English).
  5. ↑ The diplomatic relations, however, were actually taken after the fall of communism in 1991, initially the then ambassador to Italy, Stephen Egerton , also as ambassador to Albania accredited was and the performance of tasks in Albania until 1996 by a charge d'affaires took place.
  6. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 50764, HMSO, London, December 31, 1986, p. 3 ( PDF , accessed June 15, 2016, English).
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 53309, HMSO, London, May 21, 1993, p. 8895 ( PDF , accessed June 15, 2016, English).
  8. ↑ Management Information ( Memento of March 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on the homepage of Aegis Defense Services
personal data
SURNAME Birch, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Birch, John Allan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1935
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 2020