Peer of the Realm

Robin William Renwick has an MA in history from Cambridge University and studied further at the Sorbonne in France. He joined the British Foreign Service in 1963 and held various posts in Europe, Africa, India and the US before being appointed British ambassador to South Africa in 1987. He was transferred to Washington as Britain’s ambassador to the US from 1991 until his retirement from the diplomatic service in 1995. Renwick was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1980, promoted to Knight Commander (KCMG) in 1989 and made a life peer (with the title Baron Renwick of Clifton) in 1997. He is a member of the House of Lords, where he is referred to as the Right Honourable Lord Renwick of Clifton.

Renwick was in South Africa to launch his book, How to Steal a Country: State Capture and Hopes for the Future in South Africa (Jacana, R280), which describes the “vertiginous decline in political leadership in South Africa from Mandela to Zuma and its...