User:NedElliott/sandbox

Thomas Anthony Kieth Elliott (27 May, 1921 - 28 August, 1976) was a senior British diplomat who served as British ambassador to many countries.

The youngest son of Sir Ivo Elliott and Margery Carey, he was educated at the Dragon School,Oxford; Eton, where he was King's Scholar; and Balliol College, Oxford where he took his MA in 1946 after serving in the Second World War. During WW2 he served in Ethiopia and Somalia, eventually gaining the rank of captain.

In 1947 he joined the Foreign Office, becoming Third Secretary in Belgrade between 1949 and 1952. Here he met Alethea Richardson who he married in 1951. In 1953 he became First Secretary of the Foreign Office in 1953. Between 1957 and 1959 he was the Britsh Head of Chancery in Peking, where he was known for his strong understanding of how to work with the anti-Western Chinese. After many other roles in Athens, Hong Kong and Washington he was appointed British Ambassador in Helsinki, 1972. This was his most important post which essentially helped bring about a period of detente between East and West, which in turn triggered events which would lead to the end of the Cold War. It was here during the Helsinki Accords he showed himself as invaluable, as he established a close working relationship with the French, therefore