Sir John Fretwell
Ambassador to France whose whisky softened Mrs Thatcher’s resistance to the Channel Tunnel
SIR JOHN FRETWELL, who has died aged 86, scaled the heights of Britain’s Diplomatic Service, as ambassador to France from 1982 to 1987 and subsequently political director at the Foreign Office. Fretwell was formidable in his powers of analysis, his mastery of detail, his ability to penetrate to the core of a complex problem. These gifts were matched with a somewhat retiring personality, so it came as a surprise to some when Lord Carrington chose him for the highprofile Paris posting.
As things turned out, Fretwell quickly got the measure of this most demanding job and, supported by his wife Mary, won golden opinions from the French and his own government. Mary Fretwell made no secret of enjoying the role of “Ambassadress”, her vivacity and humour complementing her husband’s diplomatic skills.
While in Paris, Fretwell was closely involved in two pivotal passages in Anglo-French relations: the decision to proceed with the Channel Tunnel, and the political crisis sparked by the bombing by French agents of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.
In November 1984 Margaret Thatcher, at the height of her powers, flew to Paris with an entourage of senior ministers to meet President Mitterrand, with a fixed link at the top of the agenda.
At 11pm British ministers and officials gathered in the Salon Vert, the ambassador’s room on the first floor of the embassy. The discussion, lubricated by Fretwell’s whisky, centred on Mitterrand’s request that they give their verdict the following day.
At first, he recalled, Mrs Thatcher was hostile. “She went through all the familiar arguments against it. The traffic would be devastating to Kent, it would destroy the ferries, it would cost too much.” Gradually the mood changed, and towards 2am she was praising the tunnel as the most exciting project of the century.
The following year, France tried to blame MI6 for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, which had been on its way to block a French nuclear test in the South Pacific. The attack killed one crew member.
The French government denied its complicity for more than two months. Meanwhile the French media began to air the theory that the British had sunk the vessel, then framed the agents. Malcolm Rifkind, then a junior FCO minister, instructed Fretwell to tell the French government to end the “campaign of misinformation”.
Fretwell explained to a furious Whitehall that the stories indicated the desperation of France’s political establishment to wriggle out of a scandal that threatened its very existence. “The highest personalities in the land are fighting for political survival,” he wrote, “and even the fabric of the state is beginning to shake under the impact of repeated revelations, denunciations, attempts to acknowledge bits of truth while concealing others … and desperate attempts to find answers which will somehow satisfy public opinion while keeping the president above the melee.”
Mitterrand survived, but his defence minister and the head of the secret service were sacked, and two of the service’s agents were jailed after pleading guilty to the attack. Repatriated to France, they were freed despite assurances to New Zealand that they would serve out their sentences.
After five years in Paris, Fretwell returned to the FCO as political director and deputy to the Permanent Under-Secretary. He represented three Foreign Secretaries – Sir Geoffrey Howe, John Major and Douglas Hurd – in the process of formulating and implementing a common foreign policy among the then 12 members of the EC.
It was on Fretwell’s watch that the Berlin Wall fell, leaving Mrs Thatcher trying to prevent German reunification. He responded with a minute arguing that the changes taking place in Germany and throughout eastern Europe were both inevitable and welcome, and that Britain risked isolation if she opposed them. His assessment set a high standard. Twenty-five years on, with the Middle East in turmoil, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell lamented the failure of policymakers to see the Arab Spring with Fretwell’s clarity and perspective.
When the Fretwells returned from Paris, they had to put their basset hound into quarantine. When it came out “its paws were all torn,” Fretwell recalled. “It had barked itself so hoarse that it lost its bark. It hung on for a year or two, but it was never the same dog again.”
Retiring in 1990, he supported his wife in founding Passport for Pets, which campaigned for an alternative to compulsory quarantine for cats and dogs entering or returning to the UK with their owners. Lady Fretwell’s campaign won widespread support and was ultimately successful. In 2001 she was appointed OBE for services to pet owners and animal welfare.
Major (his first name) John Emsley Fretwell was born on June 15 1930, the son of Francis and Dorothy Fretwell, and brought up in Chesterfield; both his grandfathers were miners. From Chesterfield Grammar School he went to Lausanne University, then after National Service took a First in French and Russian at King’s College, Cambridge.
Entering the Foreign Service in 1953, he was sent to Hong Kong to learn Chinese as well, followed by a two-year posting to Peking which he rated “the most intense experience I’ve had in the whole of my diplomatic life”. In the fairly relaxed “Let a hundred flowers bloom” period, when the Chinese Communist Party briefly encouraged citizens to express their opinions and promoted the arts and sciences, Fretwell travelled widely around the country.
Spells in Whitehall alternated with postings to Moscow (1959 to 1962), and commercial duties in Washington (1967 to 1970) and Warsaw (1971 to 1973).
After Britain joined the EEC at the start of 1973, Fretwell took charge of the FCO’s European Integration Department; he was promoted in 1976 to Assistant Under-Secretary responsible for European Community affairs. He displayed a sensitivity to the political climate within Europe which led him to suggest acceptable solutions to difficult questions.
Shortly after Mrs Thatcher’s election victory in 1979, Fretwell spent a day at Chequers briefing her on Europe. “We were all quite clear that the real issue we had to deal with was the budget and that something had to be done,” he recalled. “What we didn’t realise was that we were unleashing a tiger.”
Fretwell looked destined to end up as UK representative in Brussels. But after a year as British Minister in Washington (under Nicholas Henderson) he succeeded Sir Reginald Hibbert in Paris.
In retirement, Fretwell divided his time between London and the family’s attractive house in Normandy. He took on the chairmanship of the FrancoBritish Society, sorting out its finances, and served on the council of Lloyd’s (1991–92), and as specialist adviser to the House of Lords (1992–93) and the Higher Education Funding Council (1995–96).
Fretwell was appointed CMG in 1975, KCMG in 1982 and GCMG in 1987.
Lady Fretwell, whom he married in 1959, survives him with their son and their daughter.
Sir John Fretwell, born June 15 1930, died March 30 2017