John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud

Who was John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud?

John Primatt Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud, GCB, CBE was a British civil servant and diplomat.

Born in Bristol, Maud was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford. At Oxford he was a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. In 1928, he gained a one-year scholarship to Harvard University. From 1929 to 1939, he was a Fellow at University College, Oxford.

During World War II, he was Master of Birkbeck College and was also based at Reading Gaol, working for the Ministry of Food. He became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1942, and after the war, he worked at the Ministry of Education, rising to Permanent Secretary and then the Ministry of Fuel and Power until 1958. He became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1946, and was raised to a Knight Grand Cross in 1955. Inter alia, Maud appeared on the BBC programme The Brains Trust in 1958. He was High Commissioner to the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961, and Ambassador from 1961, when the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth. In 1963, he became Master of University College, Oxford, where he had been a Fellow before the Second World War.