Sir Alan Ewen Donald (5 May 1931 – 14 July 2018) was a British diplomat who was the United Kingdom ambassador to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Early life and education

Donald was born on 5 May 1931 in Inverurie, Scotland to Robert T. Donald and Louise Turner. He was educated at

Aberdeen Grammar School Aberdeen Grammar School is a state secondary school in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of thirteen secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department. It is the oldest school in the city and one of the oldest grammar school ...

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...

, then

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

( BA, LLM).

Career, 1949-2008

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

with

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link r ...

1949–50. * Joined HM Foreign Service 1954: Third Secretary, Peking, 1955–57. *

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

(FO), 1958–61: Private Secretary to

Parliamentary Under-Secretary Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister o ...

, FO, 1959–61. * Second, later First Secretary, UK Delegation to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

, Paris, 1961–64. * First Secretary,

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, 1964–66. * Personnel Dept, Diplomatic Service Admin Office, later FCO, 1967–71. * Counsellor (Commercial),

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, 1971–73. * Political Adviser to Governor of Hong Kong, 1974–77. * Ambassador to Republics of

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

Congo Brazzaville The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...

and

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

, 1977–80. * Assistant

Under-Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...

(Asia and the Pacific), FCO, 1980–84. * Ambassador to Republic of Indonesia, 1984–88. * Ambassador to People's Republic of China, 1988–91. * Director: China Fund Inc. (NY), 1992–2003; HSBC China Fund Ltd, 1994–2004; J.P. Morgan Fleming Asian Investment Trust Ltd, 1997–2001 (Fleming Far Eastern Investment Trust, 1991–97). * President,

China Association The China Association was a British merchants association established to represent the interests of British companies trading with China, Hong Kong and Japan. Members of the association included representatives of the large China Houses such as ...

, 2003–08.

Role in UK-China Relations

Donald began his studies of the Chinese language at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Soon after joining the

(FO) in 1954, Alan Donald served as Third Secretary in Peking (Beijing) from 1955 to 1957, watching as the People's Republic of China responded to the posthumous dethroning of Stalin by Khrushchev, uprisings in Eastern Europe, the Hundred Flowers Campaign, and the Anti-Rightist Campaign. After a series of posts in London and Europe for the FCO, he returned to China in 1964-1966 as the First Secretary of the Embassy in Beijing, and witnessed the initial propaganda of the Cultural Revolution, which he described as a 'visual and aural attack' in the Yangtze River valley. His next work in the Far East was significant, acting as Political Adviser to Governor of Hong Kong, 1974–77:

He was also a key figure in planning the handover of the British colony of Hong Kong to China, which eventually took place in 1997. He had been a political adviser to the British Governor of Hong-Kong, Glaswegian Sir Murray MacLehose, from 1974-77 and, a decade later, was instrumental in the creation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration while acting as Assistant Under-Secretary of State (Asia and the Pacific) at the Foreign Office in December 1984. His knowledge of Mandarin and the Chinese psyche were crucial to the eventual handover of the colony by the last governor, his friend Chris Patten, in 1997.

In 1988, he was appointed UK Ambassador to China, a post he held until 1991. This was a crucial period at the end of the Cold War, during which UK-China relations went through turbulence, including the coordination of secret diplomacy. Some of Ambassador Donald's observations of the

Tiananmen Square Massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

dating from June 1989 were declassified and published in 2016 and 2017.

Personal life

Donald married Janet Hilary Therese Blood in 1958, and they had four sons.

Honours

* , 1979. * KCMG, 1988. * Hon. LLD

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

, 1991.

Sources

DONALD, Sir Alan (Ewen)
''Who's Who 2014'', A & C Black, 2014 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)

References

External links

* *A despatch by Donald, headed "First Impressions of Indonesia", is included i
''The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase: Stories from the Diplomatic Bag''
by

Matthew Parris Matthew Francis Parris (born 7 August 1949) is a British political writer and broadcaster, formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament. He was born in South Africa to British parents. Early life and family Parris is the eldest of six childre ...

(Penguin, 2012, ) *A despatch by Donald, headed "China: Valedictory Despatch", is included i
''Parting Shots''
by

(Penguin, 2011, ) 1931 births 2018 deaths People from Inverurie People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School People educated at Fettes College Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Republic of the Congo Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Burundi Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Rwanda Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Indonesia Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George {{UK-diplomat-stub