Daphne Park

Daphne Park
Baroness Park of Monmouth
Known for	SIS officer
Born	(1921-09-01)1 September 1921 Surrey, England
Died	24 March 2010(2010-03-24) (aged 88)
Nationality	British

Daphne Margaret Sybil Désirée Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth CMG, OBE, FRSA (1 September 1921 — 24 March 2010) was a British diplomat. During her career she was also a clandestine senior controller in MI6 in Hanoi, Moscow, the Congo, and Zambia.

The daughter of John Alexander and Doreen Gwynneth Park, she was educated at Rosa Bassett School in Streatham and at Somerville College, Oxford, where she graduated with a B.A. in modern languages in 1943. She was further educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she received a Certificate of Competent Knowledge in Russian in 1952. Park served in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry from 1943 to 1948 and in the Allied Commission for Austria from 1946 to 1948. Park had a brother, David.

In 1948, she was attached to the Foreign Office, while actually working for the Secret Intelligence Service (aka SIS/MI6), becoming Third Secretary of the United Kingdom's delegation to NATO in 1952. From 1954 to 1956, she was Second Secretary of the British Embassy of Moscow, from 1959 to 1961, Consul and First Secretary to Leopoldville, from 1964 to 1967 High Commissioner to Lusaka and from 1969 to 1970 Consul-General to Hanoi. In 1972 she was named as Chargé d'Affaires of the British Embassy of Ulan Bator for several months. Parke's posting as Consul-General to Hanoi and as ad interim head of mission to Ulan Bator was no coincidance. According to a recently published book (The Journal of Bella Harding) Daphne Park was one of a number of SIS officers who headed up these misssions during the Cold War. In an agreement between SIS and the Diplomatic Service in the mid-nineteen fifties both missions were declared 'SIS Stations' to be staffed from SIS resources where possible and to act primarily as intelliegence listening posts. Daphne Park was also (acccording to the book) the first member of SIS to be enobled on retirement other than a retiring Chief. From 1973 to '79 she served in the Foreign Office.

Affiliations

• 1971–72, Honourable Research Fellow at the University of Kent
• 1980–89, Principal of Somerville College
• 1982–87, Governor of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• 1983–89, Member, British Library Board
• 1984–90, Chairman, Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Aid
• 1985–89, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Oxford
• 1989–90, Director, Zoo Development Trust
• 1989–94, Chairman, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England
• 1991–92, Trustee, Royal Armouries Development Trust
• 1994–96, Member, Forum UK
• 1994–2010, President, Society for the Promotion of the Training of Women
• 2003, Patron, Action Congo
• Member, Royal Asiatic Society
• Governor, Ditchley Foundation
• Trustee/Patron, Great Britain-Sasakawa Foundation
• Trustee, Jardine Educational Trust
• Trustee, Lucy Faithfull Travel Scholarship Fund

Honours/awards

In 1960, Park was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1971 a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). On 27 February 1990, she was created a life peer Baroness Park of Monmouth, of Broadway in the County of Hereford and Worcester, and served as SIS's semi-official spokesperson in the House of Lords. She was an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, and a Fellow of Chatham House (RIIA) and of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Personal life

Park was unmarried and had no children. She died after a long illness on 24 March 2010, aged 88.

Sources

• "DodOnline". Retrieved 2007-02-14.

External links

• ThePeerage.com information