Christopher Ewart-Biggs
Christopher Ewart-Biggs British Ambassador to Ireland | |
---|---|
In office 9 July 1976 – 21 July 1976 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | James Callaghan |
Preceded by | Sir Arthur Galsworthy |
Succeeded by | Robin Haydon |
Personal details | |
Born | Thanet, Kent, England | 5 August 1921
Died | 21 July 1976 Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland | (aged 54)
Manner of death | Assassination |
Spouses | |
Children | 3 (including Royal West Kent Regiment |
Battles/wars | Second World War |
Christopher Thomas Ewart Ewart-Biggs,
His widow, Jane Ewart-Biggs, became a Life Peer in the House of Lords, campaigned to improve Anglo-Irish relations and established the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize for literature.
Early life and career
Christopher Thomas Ewart-Biggs was born in the
Ewart-Biggs joined the Foreign Service in 1949, serving in the Lebanon, Qatar and Algiers, as well as Manila, Brussels and Paris.[2]
Following study at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies near Beirut, he was posted as political officer to Qatar (1951). In 1952 he married Gabrielle Verschoyle, and gained four stepchildren. The couple wrote a number of thrillers together using the pen name ‘Charles Elliott’ including 'Trial by fire' (1956). In 1959 she died in childbirth. He remarried (Felicity) Jane Randall on 5 May 1960.[1] They had three children, Henrietta, Robin and Kate Ewart-Biggs.[3]
Death
Ewart-Biggs was killed on 21 July 1976, at age 54, when his
It later emerged that the UK's Northern Ireland secretary Merlyn Rees had at the last minute been forced to cancel plans which would have placed him in the convoy. He was to travel to the Republic to consult with the ambassador and Irish ministers, but postponed his trip after Margaret Thatcher refused to allow Northern Ireland ministers to pair their votes in House of Commons divisions. Rees wrote in his memoirs, 'Northern Ireland, a Personal Perspective', that it seemed likely the IRA had known of his impending visit but were unaware of its cancellation.[5]
Investigation
The Irish government launched a manhunt involving 4,000
See also
- List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to Ireland
References
- ^ a b c "Biggs, Christopher Thomas Ewart". Dictionary of Irish Biography.
- ^ "Devoted diplomat who abhorred violence". The Irish Times. 25 July 2001.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
- ^ a b c "Ireland and the death of the ambassador". The Daily Telegraph. 29 December 2006.
- ^ a b c "MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR CHRISTOPHER EWART-BIGGS, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, 1976". London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 19 July 2001.
- ^ "Sir Brian Cubbon, civil servant - obituary". The Telegraph. London. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- ^ Collins, Liam (21 July 2016). "UK diplomat's murder on lonely Dublin road triggered State crisis". Irish Independent.
- ^ "Tragic irony of brutal murder". Belfasttelegraph.
- ^ a b "Trial by Fire in Dublin". Time. 2 August 1976. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011.
- ^ Weinraub, Bernard (22 July 1976). "Britain's Envoy in Dublin Killed by Mine". The New York Times.
- ^ Payne, Stewart (30 December 2006). "Prime suspect denies ambassador's murder". The Daily Telegraph.
External links
- "Christopher Ewart-Biggs Assassinated 1976", RTÉ News, 22 July 1976.