Percy Cradock

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Sir Percy Cradock , GCMG , PC (born October 26, 1923 in Byers Green , County Durham , England ; † January 22, 2010 in London ) was a British diplomat who served as British ambassador to the German Democratic Republic between 1976 and 1978 and from 1978 until 1983 was ambassador to the People's Republic of China . In addition, he was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee ( JIC ) between 1985 and 1992 .

Life

Studies, World War II and the beginning of a diplomatic career

Percy Cradock came from a family of small farmers from Northumberland and County Durham and grew up in distressed mining villages in the 1930s and 1940s . With financial support through a scholarship, he attended grammar school in Spennymoor and did military service in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War . Influenced by his family origins, he was a supporter of the Labor Party . After the war he earned a degree in English Literature and the Law at St John's College of the University of Cambridge , where he graduated with honors both. He was the first member of his family to attend university. Impressed by the work of the sinologist Arthur Waley , he increasingly occupied himself with sinology and the Chinese language . In 1950 he was president of the Cambridge Union Society debating club , the university's oldest student association, and was able to prevail in his election against his fellow Conservative Party competitor Norman Anthony Francis St John-Stevas , who later became a member of the House of Commons , Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was a member of the House of Lords after his elevation to Baron St John of Fawsley . After graduation, he was admitted to the Bar ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple in 1953 , but entered the diplomatic service in 1954. After a first use in the State Department ( Foreign Office ) , he was from 1957 to 1961 First Secretary at the High Commission in Malaysia before he 1961-1962 for governor of Hong Kong was seconded. Subsequently, he served from 1962 to 1963 as secretary of the Chinese chargé (charge d'affaires) in the representation in the People's Republic of China and then from 1963 to 1966 again as an employee at the Foreign Ministry in London .

In 1966 Cradock returned to Beijing and was there from 1966 to 1969 Counselor and Chancellor and as such from 1968 to 1969 himself Chargé d'affaires of the Representation in the People's Republic of China. There he was named Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1968 for his services . He then moved to the Ministry of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs ( Foreign and Commonwealth Office ) , where he was initially head of the planning team between 1969 and 1971, before he was Assistant Under-Secretary (Assessments Staff) from 1971 to 1975. the cabinet Office ( cabinet Office ) , the central authority of the British government, whose mission is to support the Prime Minister and the cabinet with his ministers in the government work.

Ambassador to the GDR and the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee

In 1976, Percy Cradock took over the post of Ambassador to the German Democratic Republic from Curtis Keeble and held this post until 1978, when Peter Martin Foster succeeded him. He himself then became ambassador to the People's Republic of China in 1978, succeeding Edward Youde . He held this ambassadorial post until he was replaced by Richard Mark Evans in 1983. During his activity as ambassador to the People's Republic of China, he was beaten on June 14, 1980 to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) and has since had the suffix "Sir". On June 11, 1983, he was elevated to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG). In 1984 he was for a short time Deputy Undersecretary in the Department of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In 1984, John Dixon Iklé Boyd was appointed Assistant Under-Secretary of State to the State Department to relieve Assistant Under-Secretary of State Percy Cradock and Undersecretary David Wilson who dealt with the Hong Kong Unit and The Far East Unit were intensively involved in the negotiations with the People's Republic of China on the negotiations on the reintegration of Hong Kong , which ultimately led to the signing of the Sino-British joint declaration on Hong Kong on December 19, 1984. He then resigned from the diplomatic service.

1985 Cradock was Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and at the same time as the successor of Patrick Richard Henry Wright also chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee JIC ( Joint Intelligence Committee ) , an advisory body, for assessment, coordination and monitoring of the intelligence services Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), Security Service (MI5), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and Defense Intelligence (DI) and works closely with the Joint Intelligence Organization (JIO) of the Cabinet Office. He held these functions under Thatcher's successor as Prime Minister John Major until 1992 and was then replaced by Rodric Braithwaite . While he was there, there was a grenade attack on No. Downing Street on February 7, 1991 . 10 , the seat of the Prime Minister . This was done by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on February 7, 1991. The goal was to kill the incumbent Prime Minister John Major and his war cabinet , which were discussing the Second Gulf War . The attack on Major's predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, was originally planned. Present at the meeting were: Prime Minister John Major, Chief Secretary of the Treasury David Mellor , Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd , Defense Secretary Tom King , Treasury Chancellor Norman Lamont , Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Lilley , Energy Secretary John Wakeham , Cabinet Secretary Robin Butler , Chief Defense Staff Marshal of the Royal Air Force David Craig , Attorney General Patrick Mayhew , Percy Cradock, the Prime Minister's Private Secretary Charles Powell, and the Prime Minister's Press Secretary Gus O'Donnell . No cabinet member was injured, but four people were slightly injured, including two police officers who were hit by debris. On February 9, 1993, he was also a member of the Secret Privy Council ( Privy Council ) .

For his book Know Your Enemy: How the Joint Intelligence Committee Saw the World , published in 2002 , he was awarded the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature . He was married to Birthe Dyrlund from 1953 until his death in 2010.

Publications

  • Experiences of China , 1994
  • In Pursuit of British Interests , 1997
  • Know Your Enemy: How the Joint Intelligence Committee Saw the World , 2002

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A DIRECTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMATS , p. 658
  2. ↑ A DIRECTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMATS , p. 655
  3. ↑ A DIRECTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMATS , p. 978
  4. ↑ A DIRECTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMATS , p. 944
  5. ↑ A DIRECTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMATS , p. 717
  6. ↑ A DIRECTORY OF BRITISH DIPLOMATS , p. 655
  7. ↑ a b Knights and Dames
  8. ^ J. Bowyer Bell: The Secret Army: The IRA. Transaction Publishers , 1997, ISBN 1560009012 , pp. 623-625
  9. ^ John Major : John Major , HarperCollins, 2000, ISBN 978-0006530749 , p. 238
  10. ^ Martin Dillon: 25 Years of Terror: The IRA's war against the British , Bantam Books, 1996, ISBN 0-553-40773-2 , pp. 266-270
  11. ↑ PRIVY COUNSELLORS 1969 – present (leighrayment.com)
personal data
SURNAME Cradock, Percy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Byers Green , County Durham , England
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 2010
Place of death London