Humphrey Maud

Humphrey Maud was the son of the civil servant and diplomat John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud and his wife, the pianist Jean Hamilton.^[1] He attended Eton College, where he was a favourite of Benjamin Britten - Britten dedicated The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra to Humphrey and his siblings - though Humphrey's father eventually intervened to stop him spending so much time with Britten during the holidays.^[2]

Maud studied classics and history at King's College, Cambridge. After a year teaching classics at the University of Minnesota, he entered the Foreign Service in 1959.^[1]

Maud was the British Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1982 to 1985, and the British Ambassador to Argentina from 1990 to 1993.^[3] In 1993 he became Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General with responsibility for economic and social affairs,^[1] holding the post until he retired in 1999.