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Alan Urwick

British diplomat and Serjeant-at-Arms From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Sir Alan Bedford Urwick KCVO CMG KStJ (2 May 1930 8 December 2016[1]) was a British diplomat, who served as Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons from 1989 to 1995.

Quick Facts Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, Monarch ...
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Early life

Alan Bedford Urwick was born on 2 May 1930, in London.[2][3] He was the younger of the two children, of Lt. Col. Lyndall Fownes Urwick OBE MC and Joan Wilhelmina Saunders (née Bedford).[1]

Lyndall F. Urwick was one of the British pioneers of scientific management prior to the Second World War. In 1934, he set up his own management consultancy practice, Urwick, Orr & Partners.[4]

Alan Urwick was educated at Dragon School in Oxford, and then at Rugby School in Warwickshire.[5]

Alan Urwick graduated from New College, Oxford, obtaining a first in Modern History in 1952.[2]

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Career

MI6

Foreign Office

Urwick joined the British diplomatic service in 1952 and undertook tours of duty in Western Europe, the Middle East, Moscow, and Washington, D.C.[6] He served as the United Kingdom's ambassador to Jordan (1979–1984) and to Egypt (1985–1987),[7] and was the British High Commissioner in Canada (1987–1989).[8] He left the diplomatic service in 1989.[9]

Serjeant-at-Arms

He then served as Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons until his retirement in 1995.[6]

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Retirement and death

In retirement, Urwick served as the Chairman of the Anglo-Jordanian Society from 1997 to 2001.[1] He arranged for a memorial service to be held at St. Paul's Cathedral following the death of King Hussein of Jordan in 1999.[2]

Urwick died on 8 December 2016, at the age of 86, at his home in Slaugham, West Sussex.[10]

A memorial service was held at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster Abbey on 19 October 2017.[11]

Personal life

Urwick married Marta Montagne, the daughter of the Peruvian ambassador to Lebanon, in 1960 in Beirut.[3] They had three sons together, Christopher, Richard, and Michael.[3] Urwick spoke fluent French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic.[3] Urwick was a member of the Garrick Club and an honorary member of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants.[1][4]

References

Further reading

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