David Elliott

Sir David Murray Elliott, , (8 February 1930 – 10 February 2023) was a British diplomat widely known as one of the founding fathers of the European Single Market.

Early life Elliott was born in Lewisham, South London

Later career In 1982, Elliott was appointed the UK’s Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative to Europe, a post he held until 1991. From 1986 to 1990, he and his boss, the Permanent Representative Sir David Hannay, successfully represented the UK in its negotiations with its European Treaty partners on the technical development, implementation, and workings of the European Single Market. In 1991, Elliott was appointed to a senior post within the European Institutions as Director General (Internal Market) in the Council Secretariat, with responsibility for the administrative aspects of implementing the Council’s plans around the operation and expansion of the single market and free-trade across the European Community.

Retirement Following his retirement in 1995, Elliott was until 2001 a Board member of the international aid charity CARE and was involved in the pre-accession preparations of six European nations which had applied to join the EU: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia. and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1995 Birthday Honours.

Assessment His obituary in The Times noted that from humble beginnings Elliott quickly came to the notice of the Foreign Office through his work ethic, quick mastery of technical detail and negotiating prowess, ending up as one of the founding fathers of the European Single Market.