Sir Humphrey John Hamilton Maud (17 April 1934 – 10 November 2013) was a British diplomat.

Life

Humphrey Maud was the son of the civil servant and diplomat

John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud __NOTOC__ John Primatt Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud, (3 February 1906 – 20 November 1982) was a British civil servant and diplomat. Early life Born in Bristol, Maud was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford. He gained a ...

and his wife, the pianist Jean Hamilton. He attended

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, where he was a favourite of

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

- Britten dedicated ''

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra ''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'', Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell''. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the ''Abdelazer'' sui ...

'' to Humphrey and his siblings - though Humphrey's father eventually intervened to stop him spending so much time with Britten during the holidays. Maud studied classics and history 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 ...

. After a year teaching classics at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, he entered the

Foreign Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 1959. Maud was the British

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

from 1982 to 1985, and the British

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

from 1990 to 1993. In 1993 he became

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General The Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth assists the Secretary-General in managing the operations of thCommonwealth Secretariat which is the central institution of the Commonwealth. The current Deputy Secretary-General is Dr Arjoon Suddhoo o ...

with responsibility for economic and social affairs, holding the post until he retired in 1999.

References

Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Argentina Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Luxembourg Commonwealth Deputy Secretaries-General Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Sons of life peers 1934 births 2013 deaths {{UK-diplomat-stub