In this interview excerpt, Sir Brian Unwin, a diplomat in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1960 to 1968, a senior official in Her Majesty’s Treasury from 1968 to 1985, Chairman of the Board of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise from 1987 to 1993 and President of the European Investment Bank from 1993 to 1999, discusses his family background, his childhood in Chesterfield, his military service and his university studies, particularly in Oxford and Yale. He also describes his appointment to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1960.

In this interview excerpt, Sir Brian Unwin, a diplomat in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1960 to 1968, a senior official in Her Majesty’s Treasury from 1968 to 1985, Chairman of the Board of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise from 1987 to 1993 and President of the European Investment Bank from 1993 to 1999, discusses the relative disinterest of the British public in European integration, particularly in the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) in Rome in 1957. He explains that at the end of the 1950s, the British public was mainly interested in issues related to the Suez Crisis, the Cold War and the process of decolonisation.

In this interview excerpt, Sir Brian Unwin, a diplomat in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1960 to 1968, discusses the main issues for which he was responsible during this period. He particularly mentions how he was posted for three years to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, then for one year to Ghana.

In this interview excerpt, Sir Brian Unwin, a diplomat in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1960 to 1968, describes the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, United Nations Secretary General from 1953 to 1961, during the night of 17 to 18 September 1961. Dag Hammarskjöld was flying into Ndola, in Southern Rhodesia, to meet Moise Tshombe, Prime Minister of the independent Province of Katanga, which was in conflict with the United Nations. Sir Brian also mentions the subsequent enquiry into Hammarskjöld’s death.