The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Stewart Harper: Diplomat-turned-caddie dies at 74
Stewart Harper, of Carnoustie, who has died aged 74, was a diplomat and witness to some of the 20th Century’s most momentous events.
He was caught up in the 1971 military coup in Sudan and then had a ringside seat as Watergate unfolded during his posting to Washington, DC.
Mr Harper later worked from an office in Downing Street and saw Margaret Thatcher’s sweep to power to replace Jim Callaghan’s Labour government in 1979.
In his spare time, he served with the SAS territorials and, in later life, mixed with some of golf’s biggest stars as a caddie at Carnoustie. He was with Jean van de Velde the day after he blew his chance of winning the 1999 Open. The French star asked him to throw his clubs in Barry Burn.
During his postings around the world with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Mr Harper mastered Japanese, Arabic, French and a bit of German.
These language skills helped immensely when he took early retirement and returned to Carnoustie to take up caddying.
On the day of Mr Harper’s funeral, his hearse drove past Carnoustie golf course, and fellow caddies formed a guard of honour.
Mr Harper was born in
Carnoustie, the son of barber and councillor Ritchie Harper and his wife Gladys. He was educated at Kinloch Primary School and Arbroath High School.
In October 1964, aged 17, he joined the FCO as an archivist.
He met his future wife, Sheila, who came from Aberdeen and was working with Michelin in Chelsea. The couple married in 1969. In the early 1970s, Mr Harper was posted to the registry department of the British Embassy in Sudan, where he had to shelter below his desk from the violence of the 1971 military coup.
Between 1973 and 1975, he was a diplomat in Washington, DC, when
President Richard Nixon was forced to resign.
Although he did not meet Nixon or his successor Gerald Ford, Mr Harper made visits to the White House in the course of his work. During his spell in Tokyo, from 1975 until 1978, he became a karate purple belt.
After a spell in London and then as vice-consul in Karachi, Pakistan, Mr Harper took up a final posting in Brussels and retired from the FCO in 1987.
The couple moved back to Carnoustie, where Mr Harper caddied until 2014.
Mr and Mrs Harper were parents to Craig and Leila and grandparents to twins Jude and Scarlett.