Basil Boothby CMG (9 September 1910 – 9 February 1990) was a British ambassador.
Career
Evelyn Basil Boothby (of the family of the Boothby baronets ) Was educated at Winchester College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge . He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1933 as a student interpreter in the China Consular Service, and continued to work in China until 1945, except for brief interludes in the United States and India during World War II . After the war he was appointed vice-consul in Athens where he puts Susan Asquith, granddaughter of HH Asquith : they married in 1946. Later he was Counselor in Rangoon1951-54, acting as chargé d’affaires between ambassadors. He was Counselor in the British Embassy in Brussels 1954-59, Head of the African Department at the Foreign Office 1959-62, Ambassador to Iceland 1962-65 and Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe 1965-69. After retiring from the Diplomatic Service at Morley College and later at the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of London .
- „Basil Boothby was a diplomat more successful in giving foreigners a good impression of Britain than in giving his superiors a good impression of himself. – The Times , London, 22 February 1990, page 16
References
- BOOTHBY, (Evelyn) Basil , Who Was Who , A & C Black, 1920-2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
- Basil Boothby: An Independent and Undergraduate Diplomat , The Times , London, 22 February 1990, page 16