John Peck (diplomat)

Sir John Howard Peck KCMG (16 February 1913 – 13 January 1995)[1] was a British diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the Council of Europe from 1959 to 1962,[2] Ambassador to Senegal (with cross-accreditation to Mauritania) from 1962 to 1966, and Ambassador to Ireland from 1970 to 1973.[3]

Peck was the first British Ambassador to Ireland to have been recruited from the Foreign Office instead of the Commonwealth Relations Office or its successor, the Commonwealth Office, despite Ireland having left the Commonwealth in 1949.[4] During his tenure as Ambassador, the British Embassy in Dublin was burned down by a crowd of 20,000-30,000 people on 2 February 1972, following the Bloody Sunday incident in Derry on 30 January 1972 when the British Army's Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 unarmed Catholic civilians during a civil rights demonstration.[5]

He published his memoirs, Dublin from Downing Street, in 1978.[6]

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Gerald Meade		 Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the Council of Europe
1959–1962		 Succeeded by
Ivor Porter
Preceded by
Adam Watson		 UK Ambassador to Senegal
1962–1966		 Succeeded by
John Tahourdin
Preceded by
Andrew Gilchrist		 UK Ambassador to Ireland
1970–1973		 Succeeded by
Sir Arthur Galsworthy

References

  1. ↑ "Peck, Sir John (Howard)". Who Was Who. 1 December 2007.
  2. ↑ Sir John Peck dies, aged 81, Irish Times, January 14, 1995
  3. ↑ Obituary: Sir John Peck, The Independent, 20 January 1995
  4. ↑ The excellent honour of ambassador suits you, sir, Sunday Independent, 16 July 2006
  5. ↑ 1972: British embassy in Dublin destroyed, On This Day, 2 February 1972, BBC News Online
  6. ↑ Dublin from Downing Street, Sir John Peck, Gill and Macmillan, 1978
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