Sir Jock Taylor, career diplomat
Hyfler/Rosner
(From The Telegraph)
Sir Jock Taylor, who has died aged 78, had a successful career as a diplomat
during which he became ambassador to Venezuela, the Netherlands and -
finally - West Germany.
An extremely gifted linguist, Taylor usually made a point, when posted
abroad, of learning the language. Thus he spoke fluent German and impeccable
Spanish; he even mastered Dutch. He also had French, Portuguese and Czech.
Meanwhile, his particular interest was commercial, and in all his postings
Taylor was admired for his success in promoting British exports.
John Lang Taylor (always known as Jock) was born on August 3 1924 at
Krondorf Bei Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia. His father, Sir John William Taylor,
was himself a diplomat who became British ambassador to Mexico from 1950 to
1954.
Jock attended schools at Prague and Vienna before going on to the Imperial
Services College, Windsor. He then went to America, studying Engineering at
the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, before going on to Cornell University.
Returning to Britain, he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read
History.
From 1944 to 1947 Taylor served with the RAF Voluntary Reserve before
following his father into the Foreign Service in 1949. Between 1950 and 1952
he was in Saigon and Hanoi.
This was followed by postings to Beirut (1952-55); Prague (1955-57);
Montevideo (1960-64); and Bonn (1964-69), where he began as deputy head of
Chancery and ended as commercial councillor. From 1969 to 1971 he was
minister (commercial) in the embassy at Buenos Aires.
Between 1972 and 1975 Taylor was back in London, first as head of the FCO's
Industry, Science and Energy Department, then as Under-Secretary of State at
the Department of Energy.
Taylor's first ambassadorship was in Caracas, where he was a popular
appointment. His term of office there (1975-79) coincided with a period of
great volatility in the world's oil price, and one of Taylor's tasks was to
act as a steadying influence on Venezuela, a major oil producer.
In 1979 Taylor was the subject of a BBC television documentary, Our Man in
Caracas; Sean Day-Lewis, The Daily Telegraph's television reviewer, was
touched by "one moment of emotion and poignancy" when Taylor's wife Molly,
who "entertains well and looks as if she enjoys the chore", turned to the
camera and said: "I do it for Jock's sake, because I love him."
In March 1979 Taylor was chosen to succeed Sir Richard Sykes, the British
ambassador in The Hague who had been murdered by the IRA. His successor was
seen as a potential target, and Taylor and his family had to have
round-the-clock protection.
The climax of Taylor's career was his appointment, in 1981, to Bonn, one of
the most prestigious ambassadorships in the service. Here all Taylor's
expertise in the field of exports came into play, and he was also busy
liaising with Nato and the British armed forces based in West Germany.
Taylor was appointed CMG in 1974 and KCMG in 1979.
After retiring in 1984, Taylor and his wife went to live near Chichester. He
was non-executive chairman of Klöckner INA (1984-92) and of Siemens UK
(1985-91).
Sir Jock Taylor died on September 30. He married, in 1952, Molly Rushworth,
who survives him along with their five sons and three daughters. One of
their sons, Duncan Taylor, is also a diplomat who, as deputy consul-general
in New York, was recently appointed CBE for his work with relatives of the
victims of the terrorist atrocity on September 11 2001.