Richard Stratton (diplomat)

Sir Richard Stratton KCMG
British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa
In office September 1980 – July 1984
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Harold Smedley
Succeeded by	Terence Daniel O'Leary
Governor of Pitcairn
In office September 1980 – July 1984
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Harold Smedley
Succeeded by	Terence Daniel O'Leary
British Ambassador to Rwanda
In office 1977–1977
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	James Callaghan
British Ambassador to Burundi
In office 1975–1977
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
British Ambassador to Zaire and the Congo
In office 1974–1977
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Mark Allen
Succeeded by	Alan Donald
Personal details
Born	(1924-07-16)July 16, 1924 London, England
Died	26 July 1988(1988-07-26) (aged 64)
Education	Merton College, Oxford
Profession	Diplomat

Sir Richard James Stratton KCMG (16 July 1924 – 26 July 1988) was a British diplomat. He served as the ambassador to Zaire and the Congo from 1974 to 1977, to Burundi from 1975 to 1977, and to Rwanda in 1977. He later was the high commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa from 1980 to 1984 and thus also the Governor of Pitcairn.

Biography

Stratton was born on 16 July 1924 in London, and was educated at the King's School, Rochester, in Kent. He later attended Merton College, Oxford. He served in World War II for the British Army as a member of the Coldstream Guards. After the war, he joined the Foreign Office in 1947. Among early positions he held in the office were private secretary to the under secretary of state and private secretary to Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington.

Stratton worked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1948. He later worked abroad in 1953 with the British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. It followed by work in Seoul, South Korea; the NATO Defence College in Paris, France; Bonn, Germany; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was appointed the counsellor and head of chancery to the high commission in Pakistan in 1966, which The Daily Telegraph described as "an imaginative appointment, and one which supported the theory that a clever and adaptable newcomer could soon find his way about an area regarded as a specialist's preserve." The paper described him as having "no previous experience of the sub-continent and perfectly ignorant of Islam," but said he "quickly made himself at home in difficult circumstances which included the aftermath of the 1965 war with India; Pakistan's experiment with 'basic democracy'; and makeshift offices in Rawalpindi."

Stratton served as head of the political department for the United Nations in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1971 to 1972. He then worked as an advisor to Hong Kong governor Murray MacLehose from 1972 to 1974. In 1974, he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). He was named the British Ambassador to Zaire and the Congo in 1974 and his "almost perfect French" helped him serve as "a most effective ambassador," according to The Daily Telegraph. He added the post of ambassador to Burundi in 1975 and the title of British Ambassador to Rwanda in 1977, before leaving all three of his ambassadorial roles later in 1977. He then was the Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 1977 to 1980.

In 1980, Stratton succeeded Harold Smedley as the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa. The Times described him as "the right man [for] the job. Stratton was a gregarious man and a great traveler, and he got around New Zealand great." As high commissioner, Stratton also thus held the role of Governor of Pitcairn. In 1982, he visited the Pitcairn Islands and discussed with the Island Council about Pitcairn's future development, which marked the first visit to the islands from the Governor of Pitcairn since 1976. He made another visit in May 1984, during which the flag of the Pitcairn Islands was flown for the first time. He was succeeded as high commissioner and Governor of Pitcairn by Terence Daniel O'Leary in 1984.

Stratton was named a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1982 Birthday Honours, and afterwards used the title Sir. After his career as a diplomat, he was an active member of the New Zealand Society in London. He never married. He died on 26 July 1988, at the age of 64. His obituary in The Times called him "a diplomat of the old school who knew how to cultivate the right people" and described his "career which virtually spanned the world, fairing him from South America to Japan, and from Southern Africa to the foothills of the Himalayas."