{{Short description|UK diplomat}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Thomas Nivison Haining | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG}} | image = | caption = | office1 = Foreign Service | term_start1 = 1952 | term_end1 = 1982 | predecessor1 = | successor1 = | office = British Ambassador to the Mongolian People's Republic | term_start = 1979 | term_end = 1982 | predecessor = | successor = | birth_name = | birth_date = 15 March 1927 | birth_place = | death_date = 17 July 2005 (age 78) | death_place = | party = | alma_mater = {{ubl|University of Edinburgh|University of Göttingen}} | awards = Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George | website = }} '''Thomas Nivison Haining''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG}} (15 March 1927 – 17 July 2005), was a British diplomat. He was ambassador to Mongolia from 1979 to 1982.<ref name= "times bio">{{Cite news |date=2023-07-06 |title=Tom Haining |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/scotland-travel/edinburgh/tom-haining-06737zhdmgt |access-date=2023-07-07 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
==Early life, family and education== {{expand section| date= March 2026}} Haining was educated at University of Edinburgh and University of Göttingen.<ref name= "times bio" />
==Career== In 1952, he entered the British government's Foreign Service, later transferring to the Diplomatic Service. He saw service in Vienna, Moscow, Rome and New York. In 1968, he was First Secretary (Information) with his wife as part of the UK's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.<ref>{{cite book |title= Permanent Missions to the United Nations |issue= 216 |publisher= New York |date= July 1968 |page= 163}}</ref>
From 1979 to 1982 he was British ambassador to the Mongolian People's Republic. It was a "place that fitted him like a glove".<ref name= "times bio" /> In a comment on the ''Times'' obituary for the Rev Canon Eric Staples, Haining recalls that Staples accompanied him "in full canonical dress" on official calls on the Hambo Lama, the abbot of the Gandangchinlig Monastery. In 1992, Haining visited the Gandang again, on the occasion of the enthronement of a new abbot.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-11-04 |title=Lives remembered |url= https://www.thetimes.com/uk/religion/article/lives-remembered-wx8vscn6zl7 |website= The Times |language=en |access-date=2025-05-27}}</ref>
After retirement in 1982, Haining settled in Brechin in Angus, Scotland. He became an honorary research associate in history at the University of Aberdeen and honorary president of the Chinese Studies Group.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy |url= https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Genghis+Khan%3A+His+Life+and+Legacy-p-9780631189497 |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=Wiley.com |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haining |first=Thomas |date= 1986|title=The Mongols and religion |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03068378608730208 |journal=Asian Affairs |language=en |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=19–32 |doi=10.1080/03068378608730208 |issn=0306-8374|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title= Aberdeen Chinese Studies Group |work= abdn.ac.uk| format= Newsletter |year= 1991–92| url= https://www.abdn.ac.uk/csg/documents/Aberdeen_Chinese_Studies_Group_History.pdf| publisher= University of Aberdeen| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20210725220659/https://www.abdn.ac.uk/csg/documents/Aberdeen_Chinese_Studies_Group_History.pdf| archivedate= 2021-07-25| access-date= 2026-03-23}}</ref> He wrote about Mongolia and the history of the Mongols in academic journals, reviewed books and discussed modern Mongolia being caught between Russian and Chinese influences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Atwood |first= Christopher P. |date=2000 |title=Review of The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy. Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/43193303 |journal=Mongolian Studies |volume=23 |pages=139–142 |jstor=43193303 |issn=0190-3667}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last= Haining |first=Thomas Nivison |date=1996 |title=The Yak, the Bear and the Dragon: Uneasy Bedfellows. A Cautionary Tale of Russian and Chinese Influences on Mongolian History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183121 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=69–79 |doi= 10.1017/S1356186300014784 |jstor=25183121 |issn=1356-1863|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haining |first=Thomas Nivison |date=1998 |title=Review of Tales of an Old Lama |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183546 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=289–290 |doi= 10.1017/S1356186300010269 |jstor=25183546 |issn=1356-1863}}</ref>
In 1991, Blackwell published ''Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy'' by Paul Ratchnevsky, which Haining had edited, translated from the German and contributed to.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barrett |first=T. H. |date=1992-04-23 |title=More famous than Madonna |language=en |volume=14 |work=London Review of Books |issue=8 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n08/t.h.-barrett/more-famous-than-madonna |access-date=2023-08-29 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref> (This had been first published as ''Činggis-Kahn: sein Leben und Wirken'', in 1983.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=D. O. |date=June 1985 |title=Paul Ratchnevsky: Činggis-khan: sein Leben und Wirken. (Münchener Ostasiatische Studien, Bd. 32.) x, 207 pp. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, 1983. DM 42. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/paul-ratchnevsky-cinggiskhan-sein-leben-und-wirken-munchener-ostasiatische-studien-bd-32-x-207-pp-wiesbaden-franz-steiner-verlag-gmbh-1983-dm-42/5D94F7411454BA201E9E9378287174BC |journal=Bulletin of SOAS |language=en |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=389 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00033875 |issn=1474-0699|url-access=subscription }}</ref>) The Royal Asiatic Society reviewer commented: "The translation is excellent. Mr Haining is to be congratulated on his contribution to what is in many respects an improvement even on Ratchnevsky's splendid work."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Khazanov |first=Anatoly M. |date=1993 |title=Review of Genghis Khan. His Life and Legacy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43194519 |journal=Mongolian Studies |volume=16 |pages=106–109 |jstor=43194519 |issn=0190-3667}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hanak |first=Walter K. |date= |title=Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Paul Ratchnevsky, Thomas Nivison Haining |url= https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/2864944 |journal=Speculum |language=en |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=416–417 |doi=10.2307/2864944 |jstor=2864944 |issn= 0038-7134|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Peter |date= 1993|title=Genghis Khan: his life and legacy. By Paul Ratchnevsky, translated and edited by Thomas Nivison Haining. pp. xvii, 313. 25 illus., map. Oxford and Cambridge, Mass., Blackwell, 1991. £25.00. |url= https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/genghis-khan-his-life-and-legacy-by-paul-ratchnevsky-translated-and-edited-by-thomas-nivison-haining-pp-xvii-313-25-illus-map-oxford-and-cambridge-mass-blackwell-1991-2500/271863088F6FAD510E01593685A46569 |journal= Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |language=en |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=453–454 |doi=10.1017/S1356186300014292 |issn=1474-0591|url-access= subscription}}</ref> ''Genghis Khan'' is now published by Wiley-Blackwell.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy |url= https://www.wiley.com/en-dk/Genghis+Khan%3A+His+Life+and+Legacy-p-9780631189497 |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Wiley.com |language=en}}</ref>
==Honours== * Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (1983)
==Personal life== Haining married in 1955 and had a son, Nicholas.<ref name= "times bio" /> His wife, Dorothy Patricia,<ref name= "times bio" /> known as Pat, died at the age of 97 on 11 May 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HAINING - Deaths |work= Dundee Courier |url= https://dct.myfamilyannouncements.co.uk/dundee/view/4944087/haining | date= May 21, 2025 |via= myfamilyannouncements.co.uk |language=en| access-date=2026-03-23}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haining, Thomas Nivison}} Category:1927 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Mongolia Category:20th-century British diplomats Category:Members of HM Diplomatic Service Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:20th-century British translators Category:German–English translators Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:University of Göttingen alumni