John Addis

For the American law enforcement officer and fugitive, see John Patrick Addis.

Sir John Addis KCMG (11 June 1914 – 31 July 1983) was a British diplomat, ambassador to Laos, the Philippines and China, and a collector of Ming porcelain which he gave to the British Museum.

John Addis
Photo: Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Career

John Mansfield Addis was educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, and joined the Foreign Office in 1938.^[1] After postings at Nanking, Peking and the Foreign Office, he was ambassador to Laos 1960–62;^[2] Fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs 1962–63; ambassador to the Philippines 1963–70;^[3] Senior Civilian Instructor at the Imperial Defence College 1970–71; and ambassador to China 1972–74. After retiring from the Diplomatic Service, Addis was Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Chinese Studies at Wolfson College, Oxford, 1975–82. He was a trustee of the British Museum.

Honours

Addis was appointed CMG in the New Year Honours of 1959^[4] and knighted KCMG in the New Year Honours of 1973.^[5]

Sir John Addis will be remembered with gratitude, respect and affection at the British Museum. His gift in 1975 of twenty-three pieces of early Chinese porcelain of superb quality and importance was not only one of the Museum's major benefactions this century but also a carefully thought out addition to the existing collections, every piece having been deliberately chosen in advance to fill gaps in the permanent exhibition.
— Lawrence Smith, Keeper of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum^[6]

Publications

• The India-China border question, Harvard University, 1963.^[7]
• Chinese ceramics from datable tombs, Philip Wilson Publishers, 1978. ISBN 0856670391