Robert Cecil (British diplomat)

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For other people named Robert Cecil, see Robert Cecil (disambiguation).

Robert Cecil CMG, MA (Camb)
Born(1913-03-25)25 March 1913
Southbourne, Hampshire, England
Died28 February 1994(1994-02-28) (aged 80)
Hambledon, Hampshire
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Occupation(s)Diplomat and writer
SpouseKathleen Marindin
Children1 son and 2 daughters
AwardsOrder of St Michael & St George

Robert Cecil CMG (25 March 1913 – 28 February 1994) was a British diplomat and writer.[1]

Life, education, and career[edit]

Robert Cecil was born in Southbourne, a suburb of Bournemouth, Hampshire (now in Dorset) in southern England on 25 March 1913.[2][1] He was educated at Wellington College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA (Cantab) in 1935.[2] He married Kathleen Marindin in 1938, and they had one son and two daughters.[1]

He was seconded to Major General Sir Stewart Menzies, the wartime head of MI6, for two years during the war.[3] During his career in the diplomatic service, from 1945 to 1967, Cecil served in the Foreign Office; as First Secretary in Washington, D.C.; as a Counsellor and Consul General in Europe, as Director-General of British Information Services, and latterly as Head of the Cultural Relations Department at the Foreign Office.[1] He had been made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1959 Birthday Honours.[1]

According to Cecil's obituary in The Independent, from childhood he had a close personal relationship with Donald Maclean, and the two both studied at Cambridge and worked together in the Foreign Office.[1] Maclean was a member of the Cambridge Five, who acted as spies for the Soviet Union.[1] There was some speculation that this relationship "cost [Cecil] the promotion to the highest echelons of the diplomatic service which his talents merited."[1] Cecil would later write a biography of Maclean.[1]

Cecil went on to become a reader in Contemporary German History at the University of Reading from 1968 to 1978, and chairman of the Graduate School of Contemporary European Studies from 1976 to 1978,[4] at the University of Reading. From 1968 to 1994 he was chairman of the London-based Institute for Cultural Research (ICR),[a] founded by the writer, thinker and teacher in the Sufi mystical tradition, Idries Shah[1][4] (for whom Cecil wrote an obituary).[5] Cecil wrote three monographs for the institute, and also published several books,[4] including The King's Son, co-compiled for Shah's publishing house, Octagon Press.

As well as his interest in Sufism, Cecil had a prior interest in the esoteric work of the Russian mystic, P. D. Ouspensky. Ouspensky lectured in New York, and had been a student of George Gurdjieff whose school became known as the Fourth Way.[1]

Death[edit]

Robert Cecil died in the village of Hambledon, Hampshire on 28 February 1994.[1]

Works[edit]

ICR monographs[edit]

  • Education and Elitism in Nazi Germany ISBN 978-0-904674-05-7 [4][6]
  • Cultural Imperialism ISBN 978-0-904674-06-4 [4][7]
  • Cults in 19th Century Britain ISBN 978-0-904674-15-6 [4][8]

Books[edit]

  • Life in Edwardian England (Victorian, 1969) ASIN B008OTTMAI [9]
  • The Myth Of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1972) ISBN 0396065775 [10]
  • Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia (HarperCollins, 1975) ISBN 0706701828 [11]
  • The King's Son: Readings in the Traditional Psychologies and Contemporary Thought of Man (co-compiled with Richard Rieu and David Wade, Octagon Press, 1980) ISBN 090086088X
  • A Divided Life: a biography of Donald Maclean (The Bodley Head Ltd, 1988) ISBN 0370311299 [1][12]
  • The Masks of Death: Changing Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century (The Book Guild, 1991) ISBN 0863326072.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Now superseded by The Idries Shah Foundation.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lownie, Andrew (2 March 1994). "Obituary: Robert Cecil". The Independent. London: Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Cecil, Robert, (25 March 1913–28 Feb. 1994), author; HM Diplomatic Service, retired; Chairman, Institute for Cultural Research, since 1968". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u171609. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  3. ^ "A Divided Life", 1988, author biography summary
  4. ^ a b c d e f Staff. "The Institute for Cultural Research: List of Monographs". London: The Institute for Cultural Research. Archived from the original on 4 December 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  5. ^ Cecil, Robert (26 November 1996). "Obituary: Idries Shah". The Independent. London: Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  6. ^ Cecil, Robert. "Education and Elitism in Nazi Germany". The Idries Shah Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  7. ^ Cecil, Robert. "Cultural Imperialism". The Idries Shah Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  8. ^ Cecil, Robert. "Cults in 19th Century Britain". The Idries Shah Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  9. ^ Staff (1969). "LIFE IN EDWARDIAN ENGLAND by Robert Cecil". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Media LLC. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  10. ^ Schoenbaum, David (29 October 1972). "The Myth Of the Master Race". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  11. ^ Stern, Fritz. "Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia, 1941". Foreign Affairs. Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  12. ^ Walker, Susan (1 April 1989). "A divided life: a biography of Donald Maclean". International Affairs. 65 (2). Oxford University Press: 345–346. doi:10.2307/2622121. JSTOR 2622121.
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