| His Excellency Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick GCB, GCMG |
|
|---|---|
| British High Commissioner at Allied High Commission | |
| In office 1950–1953 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Brian Robertson, 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Millar, 1st Baron Inchyra |
| Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office | |
| In office 1953–1957 |
|
| Prime Minister | Sir Anthony Eden |
| Preceded by | William Strang, 1st Baron Strang |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Millar, 1st Baron Inchyra |
| Chairman of the Independent Television Authority | |
| In office 1957–1962 |
|
| Preceded by | Kenneth Clark |
| Succeeded by | Charles Hill |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1897 |
| Died | 25 May 1964 |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) | Lady Violet Kirkpatrick |
| Children | Ivone Peter Kirkpatrick (1930-) |
| Profession | Diplomat |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
His Excellency Sir Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick GCB, GCMG (1897 – 25 May 1964) was a British diplomat who served most notably as the British High Commissioner in Germany after the war, and as the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office (the highest ranking civil servant in the Foreign Office)
Contents |
Kirkpatrick left school to join the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was wounded in the Great War. He was mentioned in despatches twice and awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre. After being wounded he was sent to Holland as a spymaster. He entered the diplomatic service almost immediately after in 1919. He was first secretary at the British Embassy at Rome from 1930 to 1932; chargé d'affaires at the Vatican in 1932-33; and first secretary at the British Embassy at Berlin from 1933 to 1938. He held a number of diplomatic offices throughout the Second World War, as well as Controller of European Services of the BBC in 1941.
He was also Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in 1945 and Deputy Under-Secretary in 1948. He became Permanent Under-Secretary for the German Section at the Foreign Office in 1949 and British High Commissioner for Germany in 1950-53; then, he was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1953 to 1957. He then retired from the diplomatic service and became Chairman of the Independent Television Authority from 1957 to 1962.
As Permanent Under-Secretary during the Suez Crisis Kirkpatrick was in favour of a strong line against Colonel Nasser. In a letter to the British Ambassador on 10 September 1956, Kirkpatrick said:
[I]f we sit back while Nasser consolidates his position and gradually acquires control of the oil-bearing countries, he can and is, according to our information, resolved to wreck us. If Middle Eastern oil is denied to us for a year or two, our gold reserves will disappear. If our gold reserves disappear, the sterling area disintegrates. If the sterling area disintegrates and we have no reserves, we shall not be able to maintain a force in Germany, or indeed, anywhere else. I doubt whether we shall be able to pay for the bare minimum necessary for our defence. And a country that cannot provide for its defence is finished.[1]
Sir Evelyn Shuckburgh said of Kirkpatrick: "He was so sharp that he cut".[2]
When Deputy Nazi Leader, Rudolf Hess landed in Britain in May 1941 he was questioned by Kirkpatrick as he was a Foreign Office expert on Germany. His report on Hess was shown only to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Lord Privy Seal Clement Attlee and Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook.[3]
Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick succeeded Sir William Strang as Permanent Under-Secretary in 1953. In his memoirs, Kirkpatrick later recalled his thoughts on taking up his new position:
'From my long years of previous service in the Foreign Office I knew what was in store for me and, like any athlete, went into training. I gave up smoking and drinking, went to parties as little as I could and took a brisk walk through the park to the office every morning. Only so was I able to last the course.'
Kirkpatrick was related to a former PUS, his mother being first cousin to Charles Hardinge. He joined the Office in February 1919 after spending the previous three years in wartime intelligence and propaganda work, an activity to which he returned when in 1941 he became foreign adviser to the BBC. Serving as head of Chancery in Berlin during 1933–38, he made clear his detestation of the Nazis. His views seem not, however, to have made any great impression on the British Ambassador, Sir Neville Henderson. After 1945 he was again very much involved with German affairs, serving for a year in the Office's Germany Section and then, during 1950-53, as High Commissioner in Bonn. Kirkpatrick had a reputation as a combative, even aggressive, Irishman, who had little time for discussion. He was not, according to some of his former colleagues, the easiest of men to work with, and in Lord Gladwyn's opinion he would have made 'an excellent general'.
Kirkpatrick's difficult period as PUS culminated in the Suez Crisis of 1956, an event that was little referred to in his memoirs, The Inner Circle (London, 1959). Convinced that the nation's survival was dependent upon the exercise of great power responsibilities, he encouraged the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, in his dangerous fixation with Nasser as a Middle Eastern Hitler. The experience of the 1930s had led both men to oppose any 'appeasement' of Nasser. Kirkpatrick's closeness to Eden was reinforced by the Prime Minister's dissatisfaction with what he perceived as a pro-Arab stance held by his Foreign Office subordinates during the last Churchill administration. As a result, Eden increasingly used Kirkpatrick as an intermediary between himself and other senior officials in the Office. This close relationship took an ominous turn when the PUS found himself obliged to exclude the Foreign Office from the decision-making process during the final crisis. For Kirkpatrick, the Suez debacle was a test of Britain's great power status, leading him later to reflect that:
'No country [in the Western world] can any longer pursue an independent foreign policy. The liberty of action of each is in varying degrees restricted by the need to obtain the concurrence of one or more members of the alliance'.
Suez sullied Kirkpatrick's reputation as PUS, though he may have been guilty of no more than fulfilling a civil servant's duty of loyalty to his political chiefs.[says who?]
4. [1] FCO Website
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by General Brian Hubert Robertson |
British High Commissioner at Allied High Commission 1950–1953 |
Succeeded by Sir Frederick Millar |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by William Strang |
Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office 1953–1957 |
Succeeded by Harold Caccia |
| Preceded by Kenneth Clark |
Chairman of the Independent Television Authority 1957–1962 |
Succeeded by Charles Hill |