Sir Nicolas Cheetham (8 October 1910 – 14 January 2002) was a British diplomat and writer.

Career

Nicolas John Alexander Cheetham (son of Sir Milne Cheetham, also a diplomat) was educated at

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, ...

and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the

Diplomatic 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 1934 and served at

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 ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 1948 Cheetham, in charge of the

Allied Control Commission Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allies were in control of the defeated Axis countries. Anticipating the defeat of Germany and Japan, they had already set up the European Advisory Commission and a proposed Far Easter ...

in Vienna, attended a meeting of the Anglo-Russian Society to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. The Soviet commander-in-chief, General Vladimir Kurasov, made a speech claiming that Britain and the USA had helped

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

to prepare for war against the Soviet Union, and were plotting a war themselves. Cheetham and the American envoy, Sidney Mellon, got up and walked out. Afterwards, in answer to a question in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

, the Foreign Secretary,

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–194 ...

, said that the Government fully endorsed Cheetham's action. (Cheetham's obituary in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' recalled that "he attracted attention with another walkout from a party, when President Nkrumah of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

called Britain 'a colonialist oppressor'.") Cheetham was Minister to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

1959–61, Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office 1961–64, and Ambassador to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

1964–68. After retiring from the Diplomatic Service, Cheetham wrote historical books.

Family

In 1936, he married Jean Evison Corfe, daughter of Lt.-Col. Arthur Cecil Corfe. They had two sons (one of whom is publisher

Anthony Cheetham Sir Anthony Kevin Cheetham (born 16 November 1946) is a British materials scientist. From 2012 to 2017 he was Vice-President and Treasurer of the Royal Society. Education Cheetham was educated at Stockport Grammar School and read chemistry at ...

). After a divorce, Cheetham married in 1960 Lady Mabel Kathleen Jocelyn (1915–1985), daughter of the 8th

Earl of Roden Earl of Roden is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1771 for Robert Jocelyn, 2nd Viscount Jocelyn. This branch of the Jocelyn family descends from the 1st Viscount, prominent Irish lawyer and politician Robert Jocelyn, the s ...

and former wife of Sir Richard Brooke, 10th Baronet (who himself remarried Cheetham's former wife).

Honours

Cheetham was appointed CMG in the

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

of 1953 and knighted KCMG in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1964.

Publications

*''A History of Mexico'', Hart-Davis, London, 1970. *''Mexico: A Short History'', Crowell, New York, 1971. *''New Spain: the birth of modern Mexico'', Gollancz, London, 1974. *''Mediaeval Greece'', Yale University Press, 1981. *''Keepers of the Keys: the Pope in history'', Macdonald, London, 1982. *''A history of the popes'', Dorset Press, 1992.

References

CHEETHAM, Sir Nicolas (John Alexander)
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, December 2012.
"Sir Nicolas Cheetham: Diplomat who remained unruffled by the icy exchanges of the early Cold War years"
(obituary), ''The Times'', London, 13 February 2002, p. 3.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheetham, Nicolas John Alexander 1910 births 2002 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Hungary Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Mexico 20th-century British historians Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George