Sir Derick Rosslyn Ashe (20 January 1919 – 4 May 2000) was a British diplomat who served as Ambassador to Romania, Ambassador to Argentina and represented Britain at the United Nations
Conference of the Committee on Disarmament
The Conference of the Committee on Disarmament was a United Nations disarmament committee authorized by a General Assembly resolution. It began work in 1969 as the successor to the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament.
History
The Conference ...
.
Early career
Derick Rosslyn Ashe was born on 20 January 1919 in
Guildford
Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
, Surrey.
His parents were Frederick Allen and Rosalind Ashe.
He attended
Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...
.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(1939–1945) Ashe served in the
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1958, serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II.
The regiment was formed as a consequence of th ...
, which he joined on 5 July 1940.
He campaigned with this unit in the Netherlands.
In May 1947, as a temporary Captain of "the Ox and Bucks", he was made Knight of the
Order of Orange-Nassau
The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands.
The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...
with Swords.
Ashe was appointed to the eighth grade of H.M. Foreign Service on 26 June 1947.
He was a counsellor at
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...
from 1962 to 1964.
He advanced to the sixth grade on 5 November 1964.
He served as a counsellor to the British H.M. embassy in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.C.M.G.
He was head of the Security department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1966 to 1969.
From 1969 to 1971 he was British Minister in
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
.
Ashe was Ambassador to
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
from 1972 to 1975.
Argentina
Ashe was appointed Ambassador to Argentina from March 1975 as tensions mounted between the British and Argentine governments which would eventually lead to the
Falklands War
The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
in 1982.
In April 1975, a car bomb was exploded outside the British embassy in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, killing a police guard. Ashe was unhurt.
In July 1975,
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the L ...
, the British foreign secretary, wanted to limit discussions with Argentina to cooperation in developing the oil and fish resources,
since a change in British public opinion would be needed before the government could agree to alter their position that the islanders would have to consent to any change in sovereignty.
Ashe advised Callaghan that failure to offer serious discussion about sovereignty of the Falkland Islands "could be seen almost as an open invitation to invasion".
On 17 January 1976 Ashe presented a note from Callaghan to Raúl Alberto Quijano, the Argentine Foreign Minister.
In it Callaghan said that the dispute over sovereignty of the islands was "unproductive".
Quijano's response was to recall the Ambassador of Argentina to Britain and demand the withdrawal of Ashe from Argentina.
Disarmament Conference
Ashe was Ambassador to the
Conference of the Committee on Disarmament
The Conference of the Committee on Disarmament was a United Nations disarmament committee authorized by a General Assembly resolution. It began work in 1969 as the successor to the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament.
History
The Conference ...
from 1977 to 1979.
The conference had difficulty finding a middle ground between the very different views of two superpowers and their allies on the one hand,
and the non-aligned states on the other.
After one of the sessions, Ashe said it had drawn greater attention to disarmament. However, he wished it could have pointed to agreement on one or more realistic ideas to produce specific results for enhancing international security.
In assessing the achievements of that conference he said,