Sir Geoffrey Wedgwood Harrison (18 July 1908 – 12 April 1990) was a British diplomat, who served as the United Kingdom's ambassador to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Harrison's tenure in Moscow was terminated in 1968, when he was recalled to London after his admission to the Foreign Office that he had an affair with his Russian maid, later revealed as a

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

" honey trap" operation.

Early life and education

Harrison was born in

Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea is not a separate town as all of Portsea Island's s ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. His parents were Thomas Edmund Harrison, a Commander in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, a grandson of

Josiah Wedgwood III Josiah "Joe" Wedgwood III (12 January 1795–11 March 1880), a grandson of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood. Wedgwood was the eldest son of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Elizabeth Allen. He was born nine days after the death of his gran ...

and Maud Winifred Godman. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

in Hampshire and then at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

. He joined the

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 ...

in 1932 and was posted to Japan and Germany before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. On 2 July 1935, he married Amy Katherine Clive (the daughter of Sir Robert Clive, the British Ambassador to Japan) at the embassy in Tokyo.

Diplomatic career

In October 1932, Harrison was appointed as a Third Secretary in

His Majesty's Diplomatic Service His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (HMDS) is the diplomatic service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, dealing with foreign affairs and representing British interests overseas, as opposed to the Home Civil Service, which d ...

, and in October 1937, he was promoted to Second Secretary. In July 1942, he was Acting First Secretary. As a junior diplomat at the Foreign Office, Harrison drafted a memorandum, "The Future of Austria", which greatly contributed to the notion of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

as an independent state. Harrison also contributed to the British draft declaration on Austria for the 1943

Moscow Declaration The Moscow Declarations were four declarations signed during the Moscow Conference on October 30, 1943. The declarations are distinct from the Communique that was issued following the Moscow Conference of 1945. They were signed by the foreign sec ...

. He was also the principal drafter of Article XII of the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

, which concerned the expulsion of ethnic Germans from central and eastern Europe after World War II. On 1 October 1956, Harrison was granted his first ambassadorship, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Brazil. On 3 November 1958, he was transferred to Tehran as Ambassador to Iran/Persia. Between 1963 and 1965, Harrison was based in London as Deputy Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. On 27 August 1965, Harrison was appointed as Ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1968, he engaged in a brief affair with a Russian chambermaid who was working at the British Embassy. Harrison recalled not asking or knowing if she worked for the

, but he said that it was assumed that every Soviet employee at the embassy worked or was an agent for the Soviet secret service. When security concerns arose over the

Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

, and he had been sent incriminating photographs taken by the KGB, Harrison informed the Foreign Office of his indiscretion, which immediately terminated his appointment and recalled him to Britain. Harrison revealed the affair to ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' newspaper in 1981. The journalist and author John Miller, who was part of the British press corps in the Soviet Union at the time of Harrison's ambassadorship, revealed more details of the affair in his memoir ''All Them Cornfields and Ballet in the Evenings'': Miller named the maid with whom Harrison was involved as Galya Ivanov and said he was told that by a Russian contact that she was not only a KGB agent but also the sister of Eugene Ivanov, the Soviet naval attaché in Britain involved in the

Profumo affair The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century Politics of the United Kingdom, British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government, had an extramar ...

Honours

Harrison was appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(KCMG) in the New Year Honours of 1955. In the 1968 Queen's Birthday Honours, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order (GCMG). On 6 March 1961, Harrison was made a Knight Commander of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

(KCVO).

References

External links

Wilson Visits Podgorny, 1968
British Pathé film of Sir Geoffrey Harrison with Prime Minister Harold Wilson, meeting Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Geoffrey 1908 births 1990 deaths Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Brazil Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Iran Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union Members of HM Diplomatic Service Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Alumni of King's College, Cambridge People educated at Winchester College 20th-century British diplomats