Basil Boothby


Basil Boothby CMG was a British ambassador.

Career

Evelyn Basil Boothby was educated at Winchester College and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1933 as a student interpreter in the China Consular Service, and continued to work in China until 1945 except for brief interludes in the United States and India during World War II. After the war he was appointed vice-consul in Athens where he met Susan Asquith, granddaughter of H. H. Asquith: they married in 1946. Later he was Counsellor in Rangoon 1951–54, acting as chargé d'affaires between ambassadors. He was Counsellor in the British Embassy in Brussels 1954–59, Head of the African Department at the Foreign Office 1959–62, Ambassador to Iceland 1962–65 and Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe 1965–69. After retiring from the Diplomatic Service he taught at Morley College and later at the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of London.