Transcript of interview: Sir Brian Barder, 1997 - 2009

File

Reference Code: GBR/0014/DOHP 22

Scope and Contents

Also includes recordings of the 45-minute BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Reunion', broadcast on 30 August 2009, and also of the longer discussion from which the programme was taken, where five people who were closely involved in the international Ethiopia famine relief programme in the mid-1980s were reunited to discuss their memories of those events. The participants were: Sir Brian Barder; International Red Cross nurse Claire Bertschinger; the BBC reporter Michael Buerk; Dawit Wolde Giorgis, former head of the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission; Hugh Goyder, former head of Oxfam's Ethiopia programme.

Dates

Creation: 1997 - 2009

Creator

Barder, Brian Leon, Sir, 1934-2017 (Knight, diplomat) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Access copies of the cds are available: please contact Churchill Archives Centre if you wish to listen to them.

Biographical / Historical

Brian Barder was born 20 June 1934, the son of Harry and Vivien Barder; he was educated at Sherborne and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge (BA). In 1958 he married Jane Maureen Cornwell.

After serving as 2nd Lieut, 7 Royal Tank Regiment, 1952-54, Barder joined the Colonial Office in 1957, and became Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, 1960-61. He then moved to the Diplomatic Service in 1965, and his diplomatic career included: First Secretary, UK Mission to United Nations, 1964-68; Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1968-70; First Secretary and Press Attaché, Moscow [Soviet Union], 1971-73; Counsellor and Head of Chancery, British High Commission, Canberra [Australia], 1973-77; Canadian National Defence College, Kingston, Ontario [Canada], 1977-78; Head of Central and Southern, later Southern African Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1978-82; Ambassador to Ethiopia, 1982-86; Ambassador to Poland, 1986-88; High Commissioner to Nigeria, and concurrently Ambassador to Benin, 1988-91; High Commissioner to Australia, 1991-94. Barder died on 19 September 2017.

He was awarded the KCMG in 1992.