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British diplomat From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roger Mellor Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield, GCB GCMG FRS DL[1] (3 February 1904 – 9 November 1996), was a British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1953 to 1956.
The Lord Sherfield | |
|---|---|
Makins in 1952 | |
| British Ambassador to the United States | |
| In office 1953–1956 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Sir Oliver Franks |
| Succeeded by | Sir Harold Caccia |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 February 1904 |
| Died | 9 November 1996 (aged 92) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Makins was the son of Brigadier-General Sir Ernest Makins (1869–1959) and Florence Mellor. He was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1927.
However, he never practised and instead joined the Diplomatic Service in 1928. In 1938 Makins minuted a Foreign Office memorandum dealing with the German refugee problem thus: "The pitiful condition to which German jews will be reduced will not make them desirable immigrants". He was later appointed to be Minister Plenipotentiary at the British Embassy in Washington in 1945,[2] and served until 1947. He was Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office from 1947 to 1948 and as Deputy Under-Secretary of State from 1948 to 1952.
In 1953 he was appointed to be the Ambassador to the United States,[3] a post he held until 1956. On the eve of the Suez Crisis, he was present at the crucial meeting on 25 September 1956 where Harold Macmillan was apparently persuaded that US President Dwight D. Eisenhower had offered the British Government tacit support; Makins, on the other hand, correctly concluded that Eisenhower would not support the intervention.[4]
After his return from Washington he served as Joint Permanent Secretary to The Treasury from 1956 to 1960 and as Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority from 1960 to 1964.
Makins was appointed to the post of Chancellor of the University of Reading in 1969, and retained this position until 1992.[5]
On 30 April 1934, in an Episcopal ceremony in Tallahassee, Florida, he married an American, Alice Brooks Davis (d. 1985), the daughter of Dwight F. Davis, founder of the Davis Cup and former US Secretary of War. The couple had six children:[6]
Makins was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as a Companion (CMG) in the 1944 New Year Honours[10] and was promoted in the same Order as a Knight Commander (KCMG) in the 1949 Birthday Honours.[11] He was appointed to the Order of the Bath as a Knight Commander (KCB) in the 1953 New Year Honours.[12] He was promoted in the Order of St Michael and St George as a Knight Grand Cross (GCMG) in the 1955 New Year Honours[13] and was promoted within the Order of the Bath as a Knight Grand Cross (GCB) in the 1960 New Year Honours.[14]
In the 1964 Birthday Honours, Makins was raised to the peerage as Baron Sherfield, of Sherfield-on-Loddon in the County of Southampton.[15]
He was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) under Statute 12 (for those "who have rendered conspicuous service to the cause of science, or are such that election would be of signal benefit to the Society") in 1986.[16]
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Makins was a notable collector of Victorian art. The Makins Collection contained important works by John Everett Millais.
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