British Diplomatic Oral History Programme

Peregrine Rhodes was born 14 May 1925, the son of Cyril Edmunds Rhodes and Elizabeth Jocelyn Rhodes. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford (taking a 1st class BA in classics). In 1951 he married 1st, Jane Marion Hassell (the marriage was later dissolved), having two sons and one daughter; 2nd, in 1969, Margaret Rosemary Page.

After serving with the Coldstream Guards, (1944-47), Rhodes joined the Foreign Office in 1950 and his career included: 2nd Secretary, Rangoon [Burma, later Myanmar], (1953-56); Private Secretary to Minister of State, (1956-59); 1st Secretary, Vienna [Austria], (1959-62); 1st Secretary, Helsinki [Finland], (1962-65); Foreign and Commonwealth Office, (1965-68), Counsellor (1967); Institute for Study of International Organisation, Sussex University, (1968-69); Counsellor, Rome, (1970-73); Chargé d'Affaires, East Berlin [East Germany], (1973-75); on secondment as Under Secretary, Cabinet Office (Chief of Assessments Staff), (1975-78); High Commissioner, Cyprus, (1979-82); Ambassador to Greece, (1982-85). He died on 7 March 2005.

Online version available at http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/BDOHP/Rhodes.pdf.