Sir Julian Leonard Bullard (8 March 1928 – 25 May 2006) was a British diplomat and Pro-Chancellor of Birmingham University. He was employed at Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1953 until 1988, the

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to Bonn in the mid-1980s as well as heading Britain's relations with Soviet Russia during the early 1970s under the government of Ted Heath. He is noted for his expulsion of 105 KGB personnel from London, as well as his stance on

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

Career

Early life

Bullard was born in Athens, Greece, but brought up in Oxford (one of his brothers being the diplomat

Sir Giles Bullard Sir Giles Bullard (24 August 1926 – 11 November 1992), was a British diplomat. His appointments included British Ambassador to Bulgaria and High Commissioner to the West Indies at the time of the American invasion of Grenada. Early life Gi ...

). He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and then Rugby School, where he won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford University. His father, Sir Reader Bullard, formerly Ambassador in Iran, encouraged him to enter the Foreign Service, and he came first in the competitive examination. However he had first to complete two years national service. While at the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

barracks in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

he was awarded a fellowship at All Souls College at Oxford. Later, he was promoted to Lieutenant and stationed in Germany.

Germany and the KGB

In his early career from 1953 until 1971, he was sent to Vienna, Austria, and the Middle East. In the post- Six-Day War climate, he was made head of the

East Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

an and Soviet department of the Foreign Office. At this time, KGB infiltration was rife in London, and Bullard is credited with devising the strategy which resulting in the expulsion of 105 KGB spies from the capital in the 1970s. Bullard had an aptitude for languages and during his service he became fluent in Arabic, Russian and German. From 1975, he was sent to Bonn, in West Germany, as a minister, returning there in 1984 as

. During this time, he was one of many defending NATO's use of the Pershing missile to counter the Soviet nuclear threat. In 1982 he was awarded the . and on appointment as ambassador in Bonn he was awarded the GCMG.

Retirement from the Foreign Office

Bullard had retired before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He was nominated by the Privy council to join the Council of Birmingham University and in 1989 was elected chairman, a post which he held, together with the post of Pro-Chancellor, until 1994. He was instrumental in creating the university's Institute for European Law and the Institute for German Studies. At the time of his retirement, Bullard began suffering from Parkinson's disease. He continued to be active in protest against the policies of Tony Blair and the war in Iraq. He died in 2006 in Oxford, and was survived by his wife Margaret Stephens, whom he married in 1954, and his two sons and two daughters.

Published works

* ''Europe in the 1990s'', W.H. Smith Group, 1991. * ''Inside Stalin's Russia'', Day Books, 2000.

References

External links

''Sir Julian Bullard''
from '' The Times''
''Obituary — Sir Julian Bullard''
from '' The Independent'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bullard, Sir Julian 1928 births 2006 deaths People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Rifle Brigade officers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to West Germany People associated with the University of Birmingham Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Pro-Chancellors of the University of Birmingham Greek people of English descent