Michael Alexander (Diplomat)

Sir Michael O'Donel Bjarne Alexander, GCMG ( born June 19, 1936 in Winchester, † June 1, 2002 in London) was a British diplomat and fencer. He won a silver medal at the Summer Olympics in 1960 and was later among others, Ambassador to Austria.

Biography

Michael Alexander was the eldest son of the chess grandmaster and cryptographers Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (1909-1974) and his wife Enid Constance Crichton ( 1900-1982 ). He grew up in Ireland and was educated from 1957 to 1960 at St Paul 's School in London and at King's College, Cambridge. For the University of Cambridge, he took up the epee and won at the Summer Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, the silver medal with the British team, a year later he won at the U.S. Championships.

While serving in the Royal Navy Russian Alexander learned and was sent to the German city of Kiel, to listen to the radio traffic of the Russian armed forces. In Germany he met his future wife, whom he married on 18 March 1960; the couple had two sons and a daughter. He continued his studies at Yale University and at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the diplomatic service in 1962. From 1963 to 1965 he was stationed at the embassy in Moscow, then to 1968 in Singapore.

From 1968, Alexander worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. From 1972 to 1974 he was Deputy Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home and James Callaghan. Subsequently, he was Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations in Geneva, where he negotiated with Soviet emissaries of formation of the CSCE. After a short period in the personnel department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he worked from 1979 in 10 Downing Street as deputy private secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

1982 Alexander was appointed Ambassador to Austria, at a time when in Vienna took place the main negotiations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact on the reduction of forces in Europe. From 1986 to 1992 Alexander was Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to NATO in Brussels. After he had retired at an early stage, Alexander was an investment banker, first at Wasserstein Perella & Co. in Eastern Europe, then in the Russian Renaissance Capital. He also became the Royal United Services Institute ago, a think tank.

Swell

  • Rodric Braithwaite: Alexander, Sir Michael O'Donel Bjarne ( 1936-2002 ). In: HCG Matthew, Brian Harrison ( ed.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, from the earliest times to the year 2000 ( ODNB ), Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0 - 19-861411 -X, online status: January 2011 ( license required) (English)
  • The Guardian, Sir Michael Alexander, August 27, 2002 by Rodric Braithwaite
  • Michael Alexander at Sports- Reference.com (English)
  • Fechter (United Kingdom)
  • Olympian (United Kingdom)
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
  • British diplomat
  • Ambassador to Austria
  • Permanent Representative to NATO
  • Born in 1936
  • Died in 2002
  • Man
1960 Summer Olympics
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