Frank Roberts (diplomat)

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For other people named Frank Roberts, see Frank Roberts (disambiguation).

Sir Frank Roberts sailing with HMY Bloodhound during Kiel Week

Sir Frank Kenyon Roberts

GCVO (27 October 1907 – 7 January 1998) was a British diplomat. He played a key role in British diplomacy in the early years of the Cold War
, and in developing Anglo-German relations in the 1960s.

Biography

Born in

Foreign Office
in 1930, having been first-placed in the entrance examination.

His first overseas posting was to Paris, followed by

Anglo French Supreme War Council (SWC) from 1939 to 1940, and acted as interpreter during the third meeting of the SWC which took place at 10 Downing Street on 17 November 1939.[1]

He was based in London until January 1945, when he was posted to Moscow, serving as an advisor to

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Yugoslavia, a post he held until 1957,[2] when he became British Permanent Representative on the North Atlantic Council
to 1960.

He was Ambassador to the USSR from 1960 to 1962,

GCVO
in 1965.

Roberts was a hard-working and skilful negotiator, well-informed, and skilled in finding a way through difficulties. He won the confidence of the many ministers he served, including Churchill, Ernest Bevin, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Rab Butler, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Michael Stewart, and George Brown. He also developed a good relationship with the foreign leaders he dealt with, including Joseph Stalin, Josip Broz Tito, Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, and Helmut Schmidt. However, his role in the development of a close relationship between Britain and Germany did not lead to stronger German support for British membership of the European Economic Community.

He and his wife had no children. He maintained good health in his lengthy retirement, serving as a member of the Duncan committee on overseas representation in 1969, president of the British Atlantic Committee and of the European Atlantic Group, on the council of Chatham House. His main interest remained with Germany: he was president of the German chamber of commerce and industry in the UK, chairman of the steering committee of the Königswinter conference, Member of the Board of Governors of the European Institute for the Media and a founder member of the young Königswinter conference. He also accepted non-executive directorships of German and British companies, including Mercedes-Benz and Unilever (for which his father had worked in Buenos Aires).

After his wife's death in 1990, he published in 1991 his memoirs, Dealing with Dictators, which she had helped him to write. In the 1990s, he became known as television commentator on the history of the 1940s and 1950s. He died in Kensington, London on 7 January 1998.

Publications

  • Roberts, Frank (1988). Eastern Europe since Stalin. Spartacus Educational.
    ISBN 0-948865-48-2
    .
  • Roberts, Frank (1991). Dealing with dictators: The Destruction and Revival of Europe 1930–70. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
    ISBN 0-297-81197-5
    .

References

  1. ISBN 978-2-7246-0428-3
    .
  2. ^ "No. 40378". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 January 1955. p. 155.
  3. ^ "No. 42346". The London Gazette. 5 May 1961. p. 3340.
  4. ^ "No. 42985". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 May 1963. p. 3834.

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Principal Private Secretary
to the Foreign Secretary
1947–1949 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Belgrade

1954–1957 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Moscow

1960–1962 		Succeeded by
Sir Humphrey Trevelyan
Preceded by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Bonn
1963–1968 		Succeeded by
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