# Reginald Hibbert

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**Sir Reginald Alfred Hibbert**, (21 February 1922 – 5 October 2002) was a British diplomat.

## Career

Reginald Hibbert was educated at [Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet](/source/Queen_Elizabeth's_Grammar_School_for_Boys), and [Worcester College, Oxford](/source/Worcester_College,_Oxford), where he took a war-shortened course in modern history. After graduating in 1942 he volunteered for the army and was commissioned into the [4th Hussars](/source/4th_Queen's_Own_Hussars) (a tank regiment). In 1943 he was seconded to the [Special Operations Executive](/source/Special_Operations_Executive) and was parachuted into Albania, where he served as a liaison officer first with the nationalists, and then with the communist partisans. In 1944 he rejoined his regiment in Italy, serving as a troop commander until [demobilisation](/source/Demobilisation_of_the_British_Armed_Forces_after_World_War_II). After a further year at Oxford learning Russian he entered the [Foreign Service](/source/Her_Majesty's_Diplomatic_Service) in 1946. In that year, before embarking on a more normal career, he had what he subsequently called a 'highly astonishing pupillage' as a note-taker and occasional interpreter in Russian for [Ernest Bevin](/source/Ernest_Bevin), the foreign secretary, in Moscow, Paris, and New York.

Hibbert served in [Bucharest](/source/Bucharest), Vienna, [Guatemala](/source/Guatemala), [Ankara](/source/Ankara) and [Brussels](/source/Brussels) before volunteering for the post of [Chargé d'Affaires](/source/Charg%C3%A9_d'Affaires) in [Ulan Bator](/source/Ulan_Bator), Mongolia, 1964–66. He then took a sabbatical research fellowship at [Leeds University](/source/Leeds_University) before being appointed in 1967 to the office of the [Commissioner-General in South-East Asia](/source/High_Commissioner_(Commonwealth)) in Singapore, first as head of chancery and then as political adviser to the [Commander-in-Chief, Far East](/source/British_Far_East_Command). He was [Minister](/source/Minister_(diplomacy)) at [Bonn](/source/Bonn) 1972–75; Assistant [Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office](/source/Permanent_Under-Secretary_of_State_for_Foreign_Affairs) 1975–76; Deputy Under-Secretary of State 1976–79; and finally [Ambassador to France](/source/List_of_ambassadors_of_the_United_Kingdom_to_France) 1979–82. While Ambassador to France, he was known to be abrasive but his honesty was respected.[1]

After retiring from the Diplomatic Service, Hibbert was Director of the [Ditchley Foundation](/source/Ditchley_Foundation) 1982–87. He was a Visiting Fellow of [Nuffield College, Oxford](/source/Nuffield_College,_Oxford), 1984–88, and Senior Associate Member, [St Antony's College, Oxford](/source/St_Antony's_College,_Oxford), 1983–88. He was Chairman of the Franco-British Society 1990–95; President of the Féderation Britannique des Alliances Françaises, 1997–99; President of the Albanian Society of Britain, 1996–2000.

Hibbert was appointed CMG in 1966 and knighted KCMG in 1979 and GCMG in 1982. He was appointed Commandeur in the [Légion d'Honneur](/source/L%C3%A9gion_d'Honneur) in 1995. He was made an Honorary Resident Fellow of [University College of Swansea](/source/University_College_of_Swansea) in 1988 and an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, in 1991.

## Publications

- *The Albanian National Liberation Struggle: the bitter victory*, Pinter Publishers, London, 1991. ISBN 0-86187-109-X
- *The Kosovo question: origins, present complications and prospects*, David Davies Memorial Institute (Occasional paper no.11), London, 1999
- *Letters from Mongolia* (with Ann Hibbert), Radcliffe Press, London, 2005. ISBN 1-85043-578-2

## References

1. ["Sir Reginald Hibbert"](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/france/paris/sir-reginald-hibbert-3hw3rxzxbnz). *The Times*. 10 October 2002. [ISSN 0140-0460](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0140-0460). Retrieved 12 February 2019.

- [HIBBERT, Sir Reginald (Alfred)](http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U20045), Who Was Who, A & C Black, * 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved 22 February 2012
- [Hibbert, Sir Reginald Alfred (1922–2002)](http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/77337) by [Sir Alan Campbell](/source/Alan_Campbell_(diplomat)), *Oxford Dictionary of National Biography*, Oxford University Press, Jan 2006; online edn, Oct 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2012
- [Obituary: Sir Reginald Hibbert](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/oct/15/guardianobituaries.obituaries), *The Guardian*, London, 15 October 2002
- [Appreciation: Sir Reginald Hibbert](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/oct/16/guardianobituaries.richardnortontaylor), *The Guardian*, London, 16 October 2002
- [Sir Reginald Hibbert](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1409543/Sir-Reginald-Hibbert.html), Obituary, *The Telegraph*, London, 9 October 2002

## External links

- [Interview with Sir Reginald Alfred Hibbert](https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FDOHP%2024) & [transcript](https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/Hibbert.pdf), British Diplomatic Oral History Programme, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1997

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Reginald Hibbert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Hibbert) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Hibbert?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.