Sir Ludovic James Dunnett, GCB, CMG (12 February 1914 – 30 December 1997) was an English

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Born in India, he was the son of Sir James Macdonald Dunnett, a senior official in the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

. He grew up in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

before attending

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

. He entered the civil service in 1936 as an official in the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

. From 1938 to 1945, he was private secretary to the

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

. In 1945, he moved to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and later moved to the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...

, where he was a deputy secretary. He was then Permanent Secretary of the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government age ...

(from 1959 to 1962), the

Ministry of Labour The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

(from 1962 to 1966) and the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(from 1966 to 1972). In retirement, he was chairman of the International Maritime Industries Forum from 1976 to 1979, and president of the

Institute of Manpower Studies The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) is a British centre of research and consultancy on human resources and employment. Its research is frequently cited in the mainstream national media. The Institute's aim is to "help bring about sustainabl ...

from 1977 yo 1988. His second wife was the Hungarian-born artist Clarisse, ''née'' Feher. She was the widow of Grantley Loxton-Peacock and the insurance executive Sir Anthony Charles Grover, and the maternal grandmother (by her first marriage) of

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

. His brother was the diplomat Denzil Dunnett (1917–2016)."Denzil Dunnett"
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 7 June 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunnett, James 1914 births 1997 deaths British civil servants Alumni of University College, Oxford Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George British people in colonial India