Aberdeen-born diplomat Sir John Thomson, aged 91

A “proud Aberdonian” who forged links with John F Kennedy as a diplomat and looked after royalty as Britain’s High Commissioner to India has died aged 91. Sir John Thomson was born at Bieldside on April 27 1927. His grandfather, Joseph John Thomson, won a Nobel Prize for physics in 1906 for discovering the electron. His father, George Paget Thomson, won the same honour in 1937 for discovering the wave properties of the electron. Just two years after his father received the recognition, war broke out and Sir John was evacuated from the north-east to live in America – where he attended Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. It was his first taste of international travel, a theme which would go on to dominate his life. When he returned to Scotland in his late teens he attended Aberdeen University but from 1945 to 1947 he again found himself travelling – this time as a seaman on the Royal Navy’s “lower deck”. After being demobbed, Sir John went to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read history and from there went into the foreign service in 1950. He took on his first diplomatic post in 1951, as oriental secretary at Jeddah, following a dark turn of events involving British vice-consul Cyril Ousman.

Mr Ousman, who had occupied the Middle Eastern role for more than 20 years, was shot dead by Prince Mishari bin Abdul Aziz of the Saudi Arabian royal family after refusing to serve him more alcohol when he judged the teenager to have had enough during a party.

Despite the circumstances, Sir John thrived in Saudi Arabia before being sent to Damascus to work and then the Foreign Office in London.

Having impressed high-ranking officials, Sir John was sent to the British Embassy at Washington, where he became closely involved with the Kennedy regime and its “new frontier” politics.

The connection he forged with American policy makers at that time would become a lasting feature of his career.

He was posted to the policy planning staff in the Foreign Office on his return to London, later becoming head of the department.

Some of Sir John’s most significant work took place after he was made minister and deputy permanent representative to the North Atlantic Council in 1971.

For several months in 1973, he led the British delegation into talks in Vienna on force reductions and spearheaded talks on disarmament later that year.

Around that time, he formed the London Club, which resulted in the creation of guidelines for exporting nuclear weapons.

In 1977, Sir John went to New Delhi as the high commissioner and he and his wife developed close friendships with many Indians.

Some even took to introducing Sir John as “the high commissioner who knows more about India than we do”, such was his expertise on the nation.

During more-than five years in the role, he welcomed many highprofile visitors to India, including prime ministers James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher and the Prince of Wales.

In his final years of diplomatic service, Sir John was permanent representative at the United Nations, playing a part in many important debates.

He helped bring an end to the IranIraq war by brokering agreement between the permanent five members of the Security Council – the United Kingdom, the United States, Soviet Union, France and China.

In retirement, he served as an associate at Nuffield College, Oxford and as a trustee at Edinburgh University.

Sir John is survived by his second wife, Judith Bullitt, his children and grandchildren and there will be services in his memory in the US, London and Galloway, where he lived.

Sir John Thomson ‘knew more about India than the Indian people’