Arthur de la Mare
Sir Arthur James de la Mare
Life and career
Arthur James de la Mare was born into a farming family in
De la Mare was acting consul general to Seoul by 1938 when the consul general fell ill and had to return to Britain.[2] At the time he had nothing more than two years' Japanese language training.[2]
Upon his arrival in Seoul in the late 1930s he was acting consul general, and then the vice consul promptly retired, and De la Mare took on his responsibilities as well.[2] De la Mare had no consular training at this stage.[2] He was later appointed head of the Far Eastern department of the Foreign Office.[3]
He was appointed
De la Mare oversaw the transition to independence from Britain whilst High Commissioner for Singapore. De la Mare expressed his anger that the British military bases on the island were handed over to the Singapore People's Action Party government.[6] De la Mare's valedictory dispatches from Thailand and Singapore are included in Matthew Parris's book Parting Shots (Penguin, 2011). In a view that was considered old-fashioned at the time, De la Mare maintained that the British Empire could be a force for good around the world.[7]
De la Mare was appointed CMG in 1957,
He lived in the 1960s and 1970s in Walton on Thames, Surrey. He had an impish sense of humour. One of his neighbours saw Sir Arthur, somewhat shabbily dressed, doing the gardening in 1965. Assuming he was a hired hand, The neighbour asked him whether he would be willing to do the gardening at his house. Sir Arthur readily agreed. It took him some weeks to reveal to his neighbour that he was the ex-ambassador to Afghanistan and a Knight of the British Empire.
De la Mare had retired to his native Jersey by 1991.[11]
Publications
- de la Mare, Sir Arthur Perverse and Foolish: A Jersey farmer's Son in the British Diplomatic Service, La Haule Books, Jersey, 1994 ISBN 0861200462
References
- ^ ProQuest 318241556.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-79617-3.
- ^ "Personalities of the week". Illustrated London News. 18 May 1963.
- ^ The London Gazette, 19 July 1963
- ^ The London Gazette, 17 November 1970
- ISBN 978-90-485-1437-3.
- ISBN 978-0-670-91929-1.
- ^ The London Gazette, 1 January 1957
- ^ The London Gazette, 5 June 1968
- ^ The London Gazette, 9 May 1972
- ISSN 0745-7847.
External links
- Portraits of Sir Arthur James de la Mare at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- de la MARE, Sir Arthur (James), Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012
- Sir Arthur de la Mare (obituary), The Times, London, 5 January 1995, page 21
- Obituaries : Sir Arthur de la Mare, The Independent, London, 31 December 1994
