the wellington college year book 2010/2011
107
T
he Great Duke was a diplomat as well as a soldier
and statesman. So it is fitting that so many ows have
served in the Diplomatic
Service (ds) and continue to do so.
Their names are recorded in Patrick
Mileham’s excellent Wellington College?—?The
First 150 Years. They include two post-war
Heads of the Diplomatic Service: Frederick
Hoyer-Miller (1957–1962) and Michael Palliser
(1975–1982). They and two other ds Heads,
Denis Greenhill and Patrick Wright, although
not themselves ows, took their turns as
Governors, as did Harold Nicolson, another
ow diplomat as well as writer and politician.
Among post-war ow politicians, three have
served as Ministers in the Foreign or Foreign
and Commonwealth Office (fco): Patrick
Gordon Walker, briefly Foreign Secretary in
Mr Wilson’s first administration, Humphrey
Atkins and Richard Luce under Mrs Thatcher.
I worked closely with Richard Luce in the
1980s when he was Minister responsible for
the Middle East. As desk officer for Lebanon
and Israel, I accompanied him on a memorable
trip via Cyprus and an raf helicopter to
visit the British contingent of the ill-fated
Multinational Force in Beirut? which no
—?
doubt included a few ow soldiers?!
Many ow officers will have served on the
Defence Staff of British Missions overseas, as
indeed did the present Duke of Wellington
who was Defence Attaché in Madrid in the
1960s.