John Ure (diplomat)

Sir John Burns Ure KCMG LVO FRGS (5 July 1931 – 19 September 2023) was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Cuba, Brazil and Sweden, and an author.

Life and career

John Burns Ure was born on 5 July 1931, and was educated at Uppingham School. After active service as a 2nd Lieutenant with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in Malaya, 1950–51, he read history at Magdalene College, Cambridge before joining the Foreign Service in 1956. Besides various posts at the Foreign Office he was 3rd Secretary (and private secretary to the Ambassador), Moscow, 1957–59; 2nd Secretary, Léopoldville, 1962–63; First Secretary (Commercial), Santiago, 1967–70; Counsellor, and intermittently Chargé d'Affaires, Lisbon, 1972–77; Ambassador to Cuba 1979–81; Ambassador to Brazil 1984–87 and Ambassador to Sweden 1987–91. During his career he attended the six-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

After retiring from the Diplomatic Service, Sir John was a non-executive director of companies including Thomas Cook and Sotheby's Scandinavia, and served on the council of the Royal Geographical Society of which he was a Life Fellow.

John Ure was made LVO in 1968, CMG in 1980 and knighted KCMG in 1987. In 1973 he was made a Commander in the Portuguese Military Order of Christ.

In Who's Who, John Ure gives his recreation as "Travelling uncomfortably in remote places and writing about it comfortably afterwards."

Sir John Ure died on 19 September 2023, at the age of 92.{{cite news |title=Sir John Burns Ure KCMG LVO |url=https://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/advert/ure-notices_53580 |access-date=23 September 2023 |publisher=The Telegraph |date=23 September 2023}}

Bibliography

=Books=

Cucumber Sandwiches in the Andes, Constable, London, 1973. {{ISBN|0094592705}}
Prince Henry the Navigator, Constable, London, 1977. {{ISBN|0094612404}}
The Trail of Tamerlane, Constable, London, 1980. {{ISBN|0094633509}}
The Quest for Captain Morgan, Constable, London, 1983. {{ISBN|0094652600}}
Trespassers on the Amazon, Constable, London, 1986. {{ISBN|0094665001}}
contribution to: Royal Geographical Society History of World Exploration (Central and South America sections), Hamlyn, London, 1991. {{ISBN|0600568199}}
A Bird on the Wing: Bonnie Prince Charlie's Flight from Culloden Retraced, Constable, London, 1992. {{ISBN|0094698902}}
Diplomatic Bag: An Anthology of Diplomatic Incidents and Anecdotes from the Renaissance to the Gulf War (ed.), John Murray, London, 1994. {{ISBN|0719548268}}
The Cossacks, Constable, London, 1999. {{ISBN|0094774005}}
In Search of Nomads: An English Obsession from Hester Stanhope to Bruce Chatwin, Constable, London, 2003. {{ISBN|1841193089}}
Pilgrimage: The Great Adventure of the Middle Ages, Constable, London, 2006. {{ISBN|1841197866}}
contribution to: The Seventy Great Journeys in History (ed. Robin Hanbury-Tenison), Thames & Hudson, London, 2006. {{ISBN|0500251290}}
Shooting Leave: Spying out Central Asia in the Great Game, Constable, London, 2009. {{ISBN|1849010404}}
contribution to: The Great Explorers (ed. Robin Hanbury-Tenison), Thames & Hudson, London, 2010. {{ISBN|050025169X}}
Sabres on the Steppes: Danger, Diplomacy and Adventures in the Great Game, Constable, London, 2012. {{ISBN|1849016674}}
Beware the Rugged Russian Bear: British Adventurers Confronting the Early Bolsheviks, Old Street, London, 2015. {{ISBN|1908699582}}

=Book reviews=

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'
\|Year !class='unsortable'\|Review article !class='unsortable'\|Work(s) reviewed
2014 \|{{cite journal\|author=Ure, John\|date=10 September 2014\|title=[Untitled review]\|journal=Country Life\|volume=208\|issue=37\|pages=140}} \|{{cite book\|author=Parker, Matthew\|title=Goldeneye : where Bond was born : Ian Fleming's Jamaica\|location=London\|publisher=Hutchinson\|year=2014\|isbn=978-0-091954109}}

class='wikitable sortable' width='90%'

|Year

!class='unsortable'|Review article

!class='unsortable'|Work(s) reviewed

2014

|{{cite journal|author=Ure, John|date=10 September 2014|title=[Untitled review]|journal=Country Life|volume=208|issue=37|pages=140}}

|{{cite book|author=Parker, Matthew|title=Goldeneye : where Bond was born : Ian Fleming's Jamaica|location=London|publisher=Hutchinson|year=2014|isbn=978-0-091954109}}

References

{{cite journal|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-38383|title=Ure, Sir John (Burns)|journal=Who's Who 2012|publisher=A & C Black/Oxford University Press|year=2012|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U38383|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 |url-access=subscription}}
[https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/authors/detail.page?id=TkVVshh07JrnI/rbKUYaUBXiCjDdvXLYaqGfp9msYEtLaI0m5KHE John Ure] at Little Brown, publishers
[https://web.archive.org/web/20010426032927/http://www.speakersagency.com/stu/ur-jo.html Sir John Ure] – Speakers Agency
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africaandindianocean/tunisia/737926/Tunisias-ancient-history.html Tunisia's ancient history] – The Daily Telegraph

{{succession box|title=British Ambassador to Cuba|years=1979–1981|before=Edward Jackson|after=David Thomas}}

{{succession box|title=British Ambassador to Brazil|years=1984–1987|before=William Harding|after=Michael Newington}}

{{succession box|title=British Ambassador to Sweden|years=1987–1991|before=Sir Richard Parsons|after=John Grant}}

Category:1931 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:People educated at Uppingham School

Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge

Category:British Army personnel of the Malayan Emergency

Category:Cameronians officers

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Cuba

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Brazil

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Sweden