Martin Buckmaster, 3rd Viscount Buckmaster

Martin Stanley Buckmaster, 3rd Viscount Buckmaster, OBE (11 April 1921 – 8 June 2007) was a British diplomat. He sat on the crossbenches in the House of Lords from 1974.

Buckmaster was the elder son of Owen Buckmaster, 2nd Viscount Buckmaster, a barrister and Lloyd's underwriter, and his first wife, Joan Simpson. His grandfather was Stanley Buckmaster, 1st Viscount Buckmaster, a barrister and Liberal MP who served as Solicitor General from 1913 to 1915 and was created 1st Viscount Buckmaster in 1915 when he became Lord Chancellor.

He was educated at Stowe School. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment straight from school. He served in the Middle East and was promoted to captain.

He was demobilised in 1946 and joined the Foreign Office, using his experience of the Middle East to good effect. He was a political officer in Abu Dhabi from 1955 to 1958, and then First Secretary at the British embassy in Libya until 1963. After serving in Bahrain, he moved to Kampala to become First Secretary in Uganda from 1969 to 1971. He later served in Beirut and Yemen, retiring in 1981. He was appointed OBE in 1979.

He became Viscount Buckmaster on his father's death in 1974, his father having inherited the title in 1934. He took a seat on the crossbenches in the House of Lords, speaking mainly on matters relating to Middle East. He was vice-chairman of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding.

A committed Christian, he also spoke on issues of public morality. He was a member of the Conservative Family Campaign, and a patron of the Christian Broadcasting Council.

He did not marry. He was succeeded to the viscountcy by his nephew, Adrian Buckmaster, son of his younger brother, Hon. Colin John Buckmaster.

References

• Viscount Buckmaster, obituary, The Telegraph, London, 14 June 2007

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Buckmaster
• thepeerage.com