Alan Watt (diplomat)

Sir Alan Stewart Watt CBE (13 April 1901 – 18 September 1988) was a distinguished Australian diplomat. He attended Sydney Boys High School,^[2] he first joined the (then) Department of External Affairs in 1937.^[1] He served in the United States during World War II and was one of the Australian delegates at the United Nations Conference on International Organization.^[3] In 1947 Watt became the Australian minister to the Soviet Union and in 1948 the first Australian Ambassador in Moscow.^[3] In 1950 he returned to Australia and was appointed Secretary to the Department and was instrumental in negotiation of the ANZUS and SEATO treaties. He then served as High Commissioner to both Singapore and Southeast Asia (1954–1956), Ambassador to Japan (1956–1960) and Ambassador to Germany (1960–1962).^[3] Leaving the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1962, he became a Visiting Fellow of the Australian National University, and Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (1963–1969).^[3]

A graduate of the Universities of Sydney and Oxford, he was a Rhodes Scholar.^[3][4]

He wrote a number of books and articles in retirement, including The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy 1938–1965 (1967, Cambridge University Press, 67-10782), Vietnam - An Australian Analysis (1968, Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire for Australian Institute of International Relations), and Australian Diplomat - Memoirs of Sir Alan Watt (1972, Angus and Robertson, ISBN 0-207-12354-3).

Awards and honours

Alan Watt was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 1952,^[5] and as a Knight Bachelor in June 1954.^[6]

In 2011, a street in the Canberra suburb of Casey was named Alan Watt Crescent in Watt's honour.^[7]

References