Donald Charles Hopson was born in Hendon, 31 August 1915, the son of Charles Edward Hopson and Isabella Ida Hopson (née Snowdown). He was educated at Christ's Hospital, 1926-34, and University College, Oxford, 1934-8. He married Denise Genevieve Marie Berthe Dreux (formerly Balenski) in 1945 (divorced 1971), with whom he had one daughter, and Annelise Riisbjerg Nielsen in 1971.

He worked for the woollen manufacturers Kelsall and Kemp Ltd in Rochale, 1938-9. During the Second World War, he served with the Lancashire Fusiliers, from 1939, in France and Belgium, 1940; No. 3 Commando in Sicily and Italy, 1943; and First Commando Brigade in Normandy, 1944, and Belgium, Holland and Germany, 1945.

After the war, he joined the Diplomatic Service and was Second Secretary in Copenhagen, 1946-8; Consul in Saigon, 1948-50; First Secretary in Budapest, 1950-2; and Counsellor and Head of Chancery in Buenos Aires, 1955-7. He returned to the Foreign Office, 1952-5, and as Head of the Information Research Department, 1958-62. He was Ambassador to Laos, 1962-5; Ambassador to Mongolia, 1965-6; Chargé d'Affaires in Beijing, 1965-8; Ambassador to Venezuela, 1969-72; and Ambassador to Argentina, 1973-4.

He died on 26 August 1974.

He was mentioned in despatches, 1943; and awarded the Military Cross, 1944, the Distinguished Service Order, 1945, and the Territorial Decoration, 1948. He was appointed CMG, 1961, and KCMG, 1968.