Sir Bryan Cartledge

After taking a double First in History at Cambridge, Bryan Cartledge joined St. Antony’s as a student in 1955 in order to undertake research in Russian history- specifically, the ‘Kornilov Affair’ of 1917. He was elected to a Research Fellowship in 1958.

After spending a year assisting Sir Anthony Eden with his memoirs, Bryan joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1960. He served in Sweden, the Soviet Union and Iran before taking up a sabbatical appointment at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He returned to Moscow as Political Counsellor at the British Embassy in 1972, and then to London as Head of the East European and Soviet Department in 1975.

In 1977 he was appointed Private Secretary (Overseas Affairs and Defence) to the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, and served Margaret Thatcher in that capacity for the first six months of her Premiership. He then spent three years in Budapest as British Ambassador to Hungary, returning to London in 1983 as, first, Under-Secretary (Defence and Arms Control) in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and then as Deputy Secretary (Overseas & Defence) to the Cabinet.

In 1985 he was appointed British Ambassador to the USSR and served in Moscow until his election, in 1988, to be Principal of Linacre College, Oxford. While at Linacre he edited seven books on environmental issues and after his retirement in 1996 wrote ‘The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary’, which was published in 2006. In 1987 Sir Bryan was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of St Antony’s.  He lives in London with his third wife, Helen. “