Major Sir RW Whitney OBE Northamptonshire Regiment

Obituary for Major Sir RW Whitney OBE

Sir Raymond (Ray) William Whitney was born in Northampton on the 28th November 1930. The only son of a shoe maker, he was educated at Wellingborough and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before being commissioned into The Northamptonshire Regiment in 1951, joining the 1st Battalion in Trieste in 1952. He served in Wuppertal, Korea, Osnabruck and was seconded to the Headquarters of the Australian Army for 3 years.

In 1964, he resigned his Commission and joined the Diplomatic Service. After studying at London University for a degree in Oriental Studies, for which he attained a BA (Hons), he was posted in 1966 to Peking as First Secretary at the British Embassy. It was whilst he was there that he will be best remembered as the young British Diplomat who was lucky to escape with his life when attacked by Red Guards in Peking during the country’s Cultural Revolution.

On 25th May 1967, he first encountered the Red Guards on his arrival at Shanghai Airport, where he and Peter Hewitt (the outgoing British Consul) were prevented from getting into their car. Their attackers smeared them with glue and then tried to plant on his colleague’s head a 6ft dunce’s cap bearing a Union Flag. The Red Guards had earlier attacked the outgoing consul, damaging his furniture in protest at Britain’s suppression of Maoist demonstrations in Hong Kong. Despite his experience at the airport Ray stayed in Peking.

His next encounter was a fortnight later when a mob broke into the British Embassy; Ray and the staff were kicked and jostled by demonstrators who claimed to be supporting the Arabs against Israel in the Six Day War. The police just looked on.

On August 22nd 1967, an ultimatum from Peking to Britain over the alleged mistreatment of Chinese journalists expired. Red Guards blockaded the Embassy, telling staff that due to the angry mob, it was not safe to leave. Later that night as the Red Guards scaled the walls and the mob broke windows and began climbing in, staff retreated firstly to an inner room and then to a secure zone with heavily barred windows. As the Chinese set fire to the Embassy and the Red Guards burst in, Ray, drawing on his expertise as an Army Officer and under a hail of blows, organised an evacuation in the hope of finding a friendly Embassy. He lost his bearings, but with the help of some Chinese soldiers they arrived at the Albanian Embassy from which they could see their own Embassy ablaze. Ray was prevented from leaving the Country for almost a year and during this time he was awarded an OBE for his services during the Embassy attacks.

From 1969 to 1973 he was appointed Head of Chancery in Buenos Aires, Deputy High Commissioner in Bangladesh, finally ending his diplomatic career as Head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) Information Department.

Ray resigned in 1978 on his selection as a Conservative candidate for the Wycombe by-election; he stood down in 2001. During his political career he served under Margaret Thatcher. She sent him on a tour of Southern Africa to assess the chances of a settlement in Rhodesia. As a former head of the FCO’s East African department he was well placed to advise on the current situation. He served as Chairman on various Committees. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Treasury Ministers of that time. In 1983 he went back to the FCO as Parliamentary Under-Secretary with particular responsibility for Argentina and the Falkland Islands.

In October 1984 he moved sideways to the Department of Health and Social Security until September 1986. Also in October 1984 he escaped from the IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel.

For a further 15 years he was an active and loyal backbencher, became a regular writer on health, security issues and foreign affairs and for 10 years chaired the all-party Latin American Group. He was a campaigner for the hospice movement and outside of the House chaired the Cable Corporation; and, from 1992, the Local Government Network. In later years he was also a Lay Minister in the Church of England.

Knighted in 1997 for his Political services, he retired from the Commons at the 2001 Election.

Ray Whitney died on the 15th August 2012 at the age of 81. He married Sheila Prince in 1956, with whom he had two sons, Simon and Mark.

ME