Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon

Hugh Mackintosh Foot, Baron Caradon GCMG KCVO OBE PC (8 October 1907 – 5 September 1990) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat who presided over moves to independence in various colonies and was UK representative to the United Nations.

Family

Hugh Mackintosh Foot was born in Plymouth on 8 October 1907. He was one of the four sons of the Liberal Member of Parliament Isaac Foot, his three brothers being the politician Sir Dingle Foot, the life peer Lord Foot, and the journalist and Labour Party leader Michael Foot. "We were proud to be nonconformists and Roundheads", Caradon once wrote of his family. "Oliver Cromwell was our hero and John Milton our poet."

Education

Foot was educated at Leighton Park School in Reading, Berkshire, and then at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union and also of the Cambridge University Liberal Club. His three politically active brothers, Dingle, John and Michael, were all educated at Oxford and all became Presidents of the Oxford Union.

Career

Foot's career in the diplomatic service was both long and distinguished. During the Second World War, he was appointed as British Military Administrator of Cyrenaica, then was Colonial Secretary of Cyprus from 1943 to 1945. After the War, he served as Colonial Secretary of Jamaica, 1945–1947, Chief Secretary for Nigeria, 1947–1950 and Captain General and Governor in Chief of Jamaica, 1951-1957.

He returned to Cyprus as the last colonial Governor and Commander in Chief, 1957-1960. In 1961, he became British Ambassador to the United Nations Trusteeship Council. After the Labour Party won the 1964 general election, Foot became Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and British Ambassador to the United Nations from 1964 to 1970. After his retirement, he became a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and Princeton University.

In 1964 Foot was created a life peer as Baron Caradon of St Cleer in the County of Cornwall, the title referring to Caradon Hill on Bodmin Moor, not far from Trematon Castle, which was his country home. He jokingly claimed to be glad to be divested of the surname "Foot", which he considered a standing invitation to wags, as he liked to illustrate by recalling a telegram his father received on his election to parliament: "Foot, congratulations on your feat!"

Personal life

Foot married Florence Sylvia Tod in 1936. She predeceased him in 1985. They had three sons and a daughter together:^[1]

• Hon Paul Mackintosh Foot (8 November 1937 - 18 July 2004), a journalist.
• Hon Sarah Dingle Foot (24 September 1939 - 28 February 2015), also a journalist.^[2]
• Hon Oliver Isaac Foot (19 September 1946 - 6 February 2008)), a charity worker who led Project Orbis International.^[3]
• Hon Benjamin Arthur Foot (born 19 August 1949)

Foot died in Plymouth, aged 82, on 5 September 1990. He was survived by his four children

References

1. The Peerage, entry for Lord Caradon
2. "Sarah Foot", The Daily Telegraph, 6 March 2015
3. Geoffrey Holland "", The Guardian,

Works

• Lord Caradon. "The Obligation of Optimism." Conspectus of History 1.8 (1982): 1-9.

External links

• Entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica