Thomas Brimelow, Baron Brimelow

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Thomas "Tommy" Brimelow, Baron Brimelow GCMG OBE (born October 25, 1915 in Tyldesley , Lancashire , † August 2, 1995 in London ) was a British diplomat and politician of the Labor Party , the last permanent under-secretary of state ) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and affairs of the Commonwealth of Nations ( Foreign and Commonwealth Office ) and Head of the Diplomatic service ( Head of the Diplomatic service ) was and in 1976 as a Life peer due to the Life peerages Act 1958 a member of the House of Lords was. Brimelow was also a member of the European Parliament between 1977 and 1979 .

Life

Entry into the foreign service and World War II

Brimelow, son of a yeoman from Derbyshire and one from Scotland coming mother received because of his outstanding achievements in the fields of mathematics and Greek at New Hills- Grammar School in 1933, a scholarship to study at Oriel College of the University of Oxford . In 1937 he became Laming Traveling College at Queen's College there . After completing his studies, he entered the foreign service in 1938 and, after completing his preparatory service, served as a probationary vice- consul in Gdansk between 1938 and 1939 , before he was employed at the consulate in Riga in 1939 and then as an employee for the first time between 1940 and 1942 Consulate General in New York City .

During the Second World War , Brimelov, who was fluent in Russian , was head of the consular department of the embassy in the Soviet Union between 1942 and 1945 , and during this time also worked as an interpreter at meetings with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Josef Stalin . In addition to Stalin, he also got to know numerous other leading politicians of the CPSU such as Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov , Anastas Mikojan , Lasar Moissejewitsch Kaganowitsch , Kliment Yefremowitsch Voroshilov , Semjon Konstantinowitsch Timoshenko and Georgi Konstantinowitsch Schukow . During this time he established his reputation as a recognized expert for the Soviet Union.

Promotion to ambassador to Poland

After the end of the war, Brimelow joined the Foreign Office in 1945 and was promoted to Officer of the Eighth Grade on May 30, 1946 and to the Seventh Degree on November 22, 1946. After working there for three years, he was first secretary for trade issues and consul at the embassy in Cuba between April 28, 1948 and 1951 . He then held the functions of First Secretary for Trade Issues and Consul at the Embassy in the Soviet Union from 1951 to 1954.

1954 Brimelow Counselor for Trade at the Embassy in Turkey and was then from 1956 to 1960 head of the Northern Division of the Foreign Ministry. During this time he became Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in 1959 .

1960 to 1963 followed a position as counselor at the embassy in the USA , where he was one of the closest collaborators of the ambassadors at the time Harold Caccia and David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech .

Following the signing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, Space and Underwater and the efforts of then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to achieve reconciliation with the Soviet Union, Brimelov returned for the third time in 1963 to the embassy in the Soviet Union, where he worked until In 1966 he was the closest adviser to Ambassador Humphrey Trevelyan as envoy . During this time he also impressed the new Prime Minister Harold Wilson , who, as President of the Board of Trade, had Brimelow on his advisory staff during the negotiations for the supply of wheat with the Soviet Union in 1951.

As the successor to George Clutton , Brimelow was due to his extensive knowledge of the situation in the Eastern Bloc on August 26, 1966 ambassador to Poland and held this office until he was replaced by Nicholas Henderson in 1969. During this time he was beaten on January 1, 1968 to Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

After finishing his work in Warsaw , at the express request of then Foreign Minister Michael Stewart , he took over the post of Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Affairs of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1969 and held this office until 1973. In 1973 his alma mater , Oriel College, made him an Honorary Fellow . At that time he was advising a committee of the European Parliament on the basis of his diplomatic experience in Ankara on the question of relations with Turkey.

Head of the Diplomatic Service, Member of the House of Lords and the European Parliament

In 1973 Brimelow succeeded Denis Greenhill as Permanent Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service . He retained these functions until he was replaced by Michael Palliser . For his longstanding service, he was named Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG) on January 1, 1975 .

By a letters patent from January 29, 1976 Brimelow was raised as a life peer with the title Baron Brimelow , of Tyldesley in the County of Lancashire, in the nobility and belonged to the House of Lords as a member until his death the faction of the Labor Party joined. His official introduction ( Introduction ) as a member of the House of Lords took place on February 25, 1976 with the support of Goronwy Roberts, Baron Goronwy-Roberts and Mary Stewart, Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch .

In addition to his membership in the House of Lords, Baron Brimelow was also a member of the European Parliament from 1977 to 1978 , where he was a member of the Socialist Group .

He then acted as chairman of the Occupational Pensions Board between 1978 and 1982 .

Historical analysis of the repatriation of displaced persons due to the Yalta conference

He later dealt with the controversial repatriation of thousands of Cossacks and Yugoslavs . This was a demand made by Stalin at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 that all Soviet nationals should return after the war. This request was approved by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . The fact was that numerous Cossacks fought on the side of the German Wehrmacht , and many of the Yugoslavs - mostly Croatians - took part in cruel SS operations .

The whole tragic episode flared up when Nikolai Tolstoy published The Minister and the Massacre in 1986 , in which Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington and others were harshly criticized. The State Department then set up a committee of inquiry chaired by Brigadier General Anthony Cowgill , which included journalist Christopher Booker and Brimelow. The commission submitted an extensive report entitled The Repatriation from Austria in 1945 . In the aftermath, Baron Aldington sued Tolstoy for defamation. In his retirement, Brimelow devoted himself intensively to clearing up the history of repatriation and was partly advised by Harold Macmillan, who had been the British government's representative to the Allies in the Mediterranean region since 1942.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34560, HMSO, London, October 11, 1938, p. 6365 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 37588, HMSO, London, May 31, 1946, p. 2628 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 38010, HMSO, London, July 8, 1947, p. 3132 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 38474, HMSO, London, December 7, 1948, p. 6372 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  5. ^ Agilolf Kesselring: The North Atlantic Alliance and Finland 1949-1961: Patterns of Perception and Politics in the Cold War , 2009, ISBN 3-48658-804-4 , p. 251
  6. ^ Winfried Heinemann, Norbert Theodor Wiggershaus (editor): The international crisis year 1956: Poland, Hungary, Suez , 1999, ISBN 3-48656-369-6 , p. 380
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 44200, HMSO, London, December 16, 1966, p. 13615 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  8. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 44484, HMSO, London, December 29, 1967, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  9. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 46444, HMSO, London, December 31, 1974, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  10. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 46777, HMSO, London, December 30, 1975, p. 1 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  11. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46812, HMSO, London, January 30, 1976, p. 1529 ( PDF , accessed November 21, 2013, English).
  12. ↑ Entry in Hansard (February 25, 1976)
personal data
SURNAME Brimelow, Thomas, Baron Brimelow
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brimelow, Tommy (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Tyldesley , Lancashire
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1995
Place of death London