SIR NICHOLAS HENDERSON, G.C.M.G. TO BE NEW H.M. AMBASSADOR TO U.S.A.



QUESTIONS TO NEW BRITISH AMBASSADOR



TO USA BY JOHN DARBY.



(NO GVs ALLOWED AT FOREIGN OFFICE. SECURITY REASONS)




Initials



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Background: CHANGE TO AMBASSADOR AT WASHINGTON
The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Sir Nicholas Henderson GCMG to be HM Ambassador to the United States of America in succession to Mr Peter Jay.

Mr Jay will leave Washington by the end of June. Sir Nicholas will take up his appointment in July.

Sir Nicholas Henderson was born in London on 1 April 1919 and was educated at Stowe School and Hertford College, Oxford.

From 1940 to 1942 he served in the Ministry of War Transport and was then appointed to the Office of the Minister Resident at Cairo. In 1944 he was appointed as Assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He went to Washington as Second Secretary in 1947 and two years later was transferred to Athens. In 1950 he returned to the Foreign Office for a tour of duty and was then appointed First Secretary (Information) at Vienna in 1953. In 1956 he became Head of Chancery at Santiago and returned to the Foreign Office in 159 as Assistant (Soviet Section) in Northern Department. In 1963, after serving as Head of Northern Department, for a short period following promotion to the rank of 'Counsellor, he became Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1965 he became Minister at Madrid, and in 1969 was appointed HM Ambassador at Warsaw. In 1972 he took up an appointment as HM Ambassador at Bonn and from December 1975 to April 1979 he was HM Ambassador at Paris. He is currently on leave, prior to retirement from the Diplomatic Service in June 1979.

In 1951 he married Mrs Mary Barber, nee Cawadias. Lady Henderson is British, but of Greek origin. They have one daughter, born in 1953.