Sir Peter Ramsbotham: Diplomat who served as Ambassador to Washington before being controversially replaced by Peter Jay

(AP)

Sir Peter Ramsbotham, who served his country with distinction as a diplomat, was involved in many of the major events that shaped Britain's post-war history. Sadly, he will be remembered for his unceremonial removal from office as Ambassador to the United States. To the dismay of many he was replaced by Peter Jay, a financial journalist and the son-in-law of the Prime Minister, James Callaghan.

Born in 1919, Peter Edward Ramsbotham was the second son of Viscount Soulbury, the only white Governor-General of Ceylon. Educated at Eton, he went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where in 1938 he contracted polio, as a result of which he wore a small built-up heel on his right foot. On the outbreak of the Second World War he was downgraded medically and instead of being sent to Dunkirk with the Expeditionary Force he went to the security section of the War Office, where he met Frances Bllomfield, his future first wife.

In 1942-43, his medical grade was revised and he went into the army, first as a private and then, commissioned, the Reconnaissance Corps. He later admitted that because of his lameness he was not very good at it. As a fluent French speaker he moved to the Intelligence Corps. Shortly after D-Day and without much training he was sent to lead a counter-intelligence unit in Normandy. Their brief was to intercept and arrest German agents in the south-west. His success led to a Croix de Guerre. From France he went on with his unit to Germany and ended the war as a lieutenant-colonel. At 26, he joined the Control Commission and was posted to Hamburg as the regional intelligence and political officer to help with denazification.

In 1948, following a suggestion from his boss, Sir Christopher "Kit" Steel, later Ambassador to Bonn, Ramsbotham took the Foreign Office exam but failed due to his poor arithmetic. Steel was annoyed and made him sit it again six months later, by which time he had received coaching and so passed, entering the German Department of the Foreign Office in London. "It was a hectic time," he recalled. "We were bombarded with work, which we couldn't control. Things were fairly chaotic." He was posted to Berlin and was there during the blockade. While there he wrote about the political situation and had a hand in drawing up the new German constitution.

After Berlin, Ramsbotham worked as first secretary in the Foreign Office's Department of Economic Relations, from 1950-53 under Sir Roger Makins (later Lord Sherfield), who admired his insight and intelligent, analytical conclusions regarding the potential instability in the Middle East resulting from the increased production of oil by Iran, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

Ramsbotham saw more clearly than most how oil would change the region's political and economic landscape. Consequently, he was involved in the Abadan oil crisis and was part of the team that negotiated with the Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq. Despite his junior position, Ramsbotham's role in the crisis marked him out as a skilful diplomat and he has since been credited with being the architect of the "compromise" solution that ended it. However, the crushing of Iran's first democratic government launched 25 years of dictatorship under the Shah which bedevils Anglo-Iranian relations to this day.

At 34, Ramsbotham moved to New York to become head of Chancery in Britain's delegation to the UN and found himself at the forefront of another emergency in 1956 when the Suez crisis erupted. Further appointments followed and Ramsbotham was integral to the implementation of the Foreign Office's policy planning department, becoming its head in 1961. Then he became head of Chancery in Paris in the 1960s during Britain's failed entry to the Common Market before a two-year sabbatical at the Institute of Strategic Studies in London. He was then appointed High Commissioner in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1969.

In 1971 he became Ambassador to Iran. The Shah at that time was suspicious of what he called the "Arab-lovers" in the Foreign Office and did not want somebody tainted by Arab experiences. Ramsbotham appeared to fit the bill; he had not been to the Gulf. During a visit to Cyprus, the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, offered him the post.

After just over two years, Ramsbotham then landed the biggest job in the diplomatic service, Ambassador to the United States, just as Labour were taking office in 1974. He wondered if he dared unpack but Heath's replacement as Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, honoured the appointment. Ramsbotham enjoyed nearly three and a half years in Washington, serving three Presidents. He arrived with the Nixon administration under enormous pressure due to the Watergate scandal and went on to enjoy an unrivalled relationship with his replacement, Gerald Ford, and Ford's Democrat successor Jimmy Carter.

He was instrumental in the negotiations regarding Concorde landing rights, using a firm approach with a soft hand to avoid damaging the special relationship. He succeeded, unlike the French, in balancing the two. He was much admired in America and all was going well until the sudden death in 1977 of the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Crosland, an admirer of Ramsbotham. His successor was Dr David Owen, who had a dislike for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was not a supporter of Ramsbotham. He decided the ambassador to the US needed to be a younger man.

The rationale was that a relatively young Carter would "bond" better with a young ambassador. Owen chose his friend Peter Jay, economics editor of The Times and son-in-law of James Callaghan, who had succeeded Wilson as PM. Jay had no diplomatic experience and his appointment brought charges of nepotism, but Ramsbotham's removal went ahead and there was an unpalatable campaign by No 10 to discredit him, calling him "a fuddy-duddy and not serious".

Carter went on record as "regretting the British decision", while Callaghan years later privately conceded that it had been a mistake. Ramsbotham remarked to a journalist, "I'm not a great economist or commercial man, but I'm quite sure that Mr Peter Jay will be as good an ambassador in Washington as I would be economic editor of The Times." And so it proved. Jay's appointment did not work and Carter was unimpressed.

Following Ramsbotham's dignified departure from Washington on a wave of sympathy, the Foreign Office invited him to choose his final appointment. He asked for Hong Kong but was appointed Governor of Bermuda. His influence there was significant, particularly the work he put in which led to the removal of the "Commonwealth Vote", which had allowed decisions to benefit the white minority at the expense of the black majority. Its demise brought racial stability to the island.

Upon retirement in 1980, Ramsbotham was very much in demand and became a director of Lloyds and Commercial Union. He and his wife were keen supporters of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, particularly after their daughter was left disabled following a road accident; she subsequently died. He enjoyed his retirement, improving the garden of his Hampshire home and fishing, in particular trout fishing.

Martin Childs

Sir Peter Ramsbotham, diplomat; born 8 October 1919; High Commissioner, Cyprus 1969–71; Ambassador to Iran 1971–74; Ambassador to the United States, 1974–77; Governor to Bermuda 1977–80; CMG 1964, KCMG 1972, GCVO 1976, GCMG 1978; married 1941 Frances Bloomfield (died 1982; two sons, and one daughter deceased), 1985 Dr Zaida Hall; died Ovington, Hampshire 9 April 2010.