Oliver Miles
Richard Oliver Miles CMG (6 March 1936 - 10 November 2019)[1] was a British Ambassador and former chairman of the international business development company MEC International.[2]
Background and early life
Oliver Miles was educated at
Miles did
As a fluent Russian speaker, during his time at Oxford he was invited to accompany a party of students on a trip to the Soviet Union. Miles and Oxford professor Ron Hingley used the pretext of religious observance to slip away from the group to meet dissident author Boris Pasternak, who was being closely watched by the KGB. Miles wrote about the meeting in a letter[4] to the London Review of Books in 2014, describing "Pasternak sitting at one of those upper windows with his eye on the garden gate, where a large shiny black car would occasionally stop for a minute or two and then move slowly on." As they left, Miles recalled, Pasternak said: " When you get home you will wonder how much you should publish of what I have said to you. I have only one request: publish everything."
However, his Russian fluency also attracted the attention of KGB spy George Blake, who approached Miles while he was studying at Oxford,[5] claiming to be an official from Britain's Ministry of Defence. Using a false name, George Askey, Blake asked Miles to help keep an eye on Russian students at Oxford. Miles refused, and was not aware of the false name until he met Blake again in Lebanon, where Blake introduced himself as Blake and asked Miles to forget all about their earlier meeting. Shortly afterwards, Blake was arrested.
Miles married Julia Lyndall Weiner, a social worker and sister of Edmund Weiner (deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary) in 1968. They had four children: three sons (1972, 1973 and 1977) – including the journalist and author Hugh Miles – and one daughter (1979). Oliver had eleven grandchildren; the eldest was born in 2006 and the youngest in 2018.
Diplomatic career
Oliver Miles joined the
After two years' secondment at the
From 1993 to 1996 Miles was
Although a great lover of Russian language and literature, and a fluent speaker, Miles was never posted to Moscow, due at least in part to his earlier acquaintance with Blake. “I said rather feebly when I was given this bad news from the Security Department (of the UK Foreign Office), ‘Look, if there is one person in the world who knows that I am not a spy, it is George Blake."
Miles was appointed Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1984 New Year Honours.[7]
Retirement
After retiring from HM Diplomatic Service in 1996 Miles joined MEC International, a consultancy promoting business with the Middle East, and became chairman a decade later. He was for some years president of the Society for Libyan Studies, a learned society under the aegis of the British Academy, and chairman of HOST, a charity which arranges visits to British homes for foreign students in Britain.[8]
He also travelled to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as an OSCE election observer, and enjoyed visiting many places he had always wanted to see. His travels included a cruise down the Volga River in Russia and a trip to the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.
From 2004 to 2019 he was Deputy Chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, set up with the approval of the British and Libyan Governments to promote trade and investment.[9]
Controversy
In April 2004, Miles initiated a controversial letter to Prime Minister, Tony Blair, signed by 52 retired ambassadors and calling for a new approach to policy in Palestine and Iraq.[10]
Subsequently, he wrote a long series of articles that were published in
On 22 November 2009,
References
- ^ "Oliver Miles, diplomat and Arabist who later criticised Tony Blair over the rebuilding of Iraq after the invasion – obituary". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ "MEC International". Archived from the original on 5 November 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
- ^ Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 480.
- ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
- ^ "Heine on Friday: 'Bondery' and a brush with a legendary KGB double agent". Oxford Mail. 6 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
- ISBN 0-11-591707-1
- ^ "No. 49583". The London Gazette. 31 December 1983. p. 4.
- ^ "HOST welcomes international students in the UK!". Retrieved 12 January 2009.
- ^ "In memoriam: Oliver Miles CMG". Libyan British Business Council. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ Tom Gross (28 April 2004). "Backlash begins against ex-diplomats' "poisonous views" on Iraq, Israel". Retrieved 12 January 2009.
- ^ "Oliver Miles – Profile". The Guardian. London. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
- ^ Oliver Miles (16 August 2008). "The long road to normalisation". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
- The Independent on Sunday. London. 22 November 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- ^ Cesarani, David (29 January 2010). "Britain's affair with antisemitism". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 March 2010.