Mervyn Brown

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Sir Mervyn Brown KCMG OBE (born September 24, 1923 ) is a former British diplomat who was Ambassador to Madagascar from 1967 to 1970 , High Commissioner in Tanzania from 1975 to 1978 and most recently from 1979 to 1983 High Commissioner in Nigeria .

Life

Beginning of the diplomatic career

Brown did his military service in the Royal Artillery from 1942 to 1945 after attending Ryhope Grammar School during World War II . After a subsequent study at St John's College of the University of Oxford , he joined in 1949 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Office) . He began his first assignment abroad in 1950 as third secretary at the embassy in Argentina , where he was entrusted with tasks in the office and in the political department of the embassy until 1953 . At that time there were disputes between the governments of the two countries over the ownership claims of the so-called Falkland Island Dependencies Grahamland , South Orkney Islands and South Shetland Islands , which were secondary areas of the Falkland Islands until 1962 and have since formed the British Antarctic Territory . He then worked between 1953 and 1956 as Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City . There he mainly dealt with issues relating to the UN Economic and Social Council as a social and human rights advisor and was part of the British delegation at its annual meetings in New York City and Geneva . In addition, he worked for the British representatives in the UN Human Rights Commission and in the Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Issues (Main Committee 3) of the UN General Assembly .

In 1956 Brown returned to Great Britain, where he was briefly advisor for Sudan in the Africa division. However, five weeks after the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956 , he became a consultant for the Suez Canal and the Nile in September 1956 . This nationalization, twelve years before the concession of the canal company expired, triggered the Suez Crisis , which led to Israeli, British and French troops attacking Egypt on October 29, 1956. In December 1956 he took over the original function as Sudan advisor, later as Maghreb advisor, so that he dealt with questions about the Algerian war and the abolition of the monarchy in Tunisia on July 25, 1957 . He then became a consultant for the Horn of Africa.

In 1959, Brown became First Secretary to the Singapore- based Commissioner General for South East Asia , that of Malaya , Singapore, and British Borneo . On June 23, 1960 he took over the function of consul , first secretary and chancellor at the embassy in Laos , where he remained until 1963. As such, he was also the permanent representative of Ambassador John Mansfield Addis . During this time the first Laotian civil war fell , which escalated to war in July 1959 after the fighting between the north-based Pathet Lao with their North Vietnamese supporters and the troops of the government of the kingdom and on August 9, 1960 with the coup of the neutralist paratrooper- Captain Kong Le against the government of Somsanith Vongkotrattana . Through international mediation, the first civil war ended at the Geneva Laos Conference on June 16, 1961, with the British delegation under Malcolm MacDonald providing the conference's vice-chair. At the time of the end of his activities in Laos, the second Lao civil war began in 1963 . During his use there he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on January 1, 1963 .

Ambassador and High Commissioner

Brown returned to Great Britain in 1963 and was initially deputy head of the Foreign Ministry's Southern Europe Division, which was mainly responsible for the Mediterranean region , but also for Scandinavia . In this time fell after taking office, beginning the impact of the Cyprus problem in accordance with the so-called " bloody Christmas 1963 ," a prolonged civil war conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots from the end of 1963. He then took over the Foreign Ministry 1964-1967 Deputy Head of Unit West Africa and Central Africa , which was responsible in particular for the former Belgian and French colonies of these regions that became independent during the so-called " African Year 1960 " , while the Colonial Ministry was still responsible for the former British colonies of Nigeria , Ghana , Kenya and Tanzania . An important event in Africa from a British perspective during this period was the unilateral declaration of Rhodesia's independence by Prime Minister Ian Smith on November 11, 1965.

On October 26, 1967, Brown took over his first post as ambassador when he replaced Alan Horn as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Madagascar. As such, he also took over the functions of consul general for the Comoros and Réunion . He held this post until 1970 and was then replaced by Timothy Crosthwait . In 1970 he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was initially Inspector of the Diplomatic Service (Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service) and then Head of the Public Relations Department, before he was most recently Under Secretary for Communications .

In 1974, Brown succeeded Arthur Kellas as High Commissioner in Tanzania. As such, he became Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) on January 1, 1975 . At the same time, on December 19, 1975, he also took on the role of Consul General in the Democratic Republic of Madagascar. He held the post of High Commissioner in Tanzania and Consul General in Madagascar until 1978 and was then replaced by Peter Moon . He himself became Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York City in 1978, thus representing Ivor Richard , who was Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations from 1974 to 1979 .

Most recently, Brown succeeded Sam Fall as High Commissioner in Nigeria in 1979 . At the same time, on September 18, 1979, he was also accredited as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Benin . On January 1, 1981, he was beaten Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG), so that he has since had the suffix "Sir". In 1983 he retired and was replaced as High Commissioner in Nigeria by Hamilton Whyte .

After his retirement, Brown became involved as patron of the development aid organization Money for Madagascar, which was founded in 1986 . He was also active as a writer and wrote books on the history of Madagascar and the Lao Civil War , in which he partly processed personal experiences of his diplomatic activities.

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ At this time the Africa Department of the Foreign Ministry was only for North Africa and the Horn of Africa in charge, while the responsibility for the rest of Africa the Colonial Office ( Colonial Office ) or the Ministry of the Commonwealth (Commonwealth Office) was.
  2. ↑ At that time, the region was divided into the Empire of Abyssinia and the French Somali Coast , British Somaliland and the Italian trust territory of Somalia .
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 42185, HMSO, London, June 4, 1960, p. 7462 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
  4. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 42870, HMSO, London, December 28, 1962, p. 21 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 44478, HMSO, London, December 19, 1967, p. 13951 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
  6. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 46444, HMSO, London, December 31, 1974, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
  7. ↑ As Consul General in Madagascar, he became the de facto successor to Timothy Crosthwait, as the office of ambassador to Madagascar was initially not filled again. It was not until 1980 that Richard Langridge was appointed an ambassador to Madagascar again.
  8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46898, HMSO, London, May 13, 1976, p. 6825 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
  9. ↑ London Gazette . No. 48055, HMSO, London, January 3, 1980, p. 63 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
  10. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 48467, HMSO, London, December 30, 1980, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed June 18, 2016, English).
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Mervyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1923