Duncan Watson

Sir Noel Duncan Watson (16 December 1915 – 8 July 1999) was a British civil servant and diplomat.

Early life and education

Watson was born on 16 December 1915 in Bradford, Yorkshire, the son of Harry and Mary Noel Watson. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and New College, Oxford where he took a degree in Classics.

Career

Watson entered the Colonial Service and went to Cyprus where he served as an administrative officer from 1938 to 1943. In the following year, he was appointed assistant colonial secretary in Trinidad, remaining in the post until 1945 when he was seconded to the Colonial Office. He served for twelve years at the Colonial Office, first as head of the social services department from 1950 to 1955 overseeing social policy in the colonies preparing for independence; then as head of its intelligence and security department from 1955 to 1960 reporting on insurgencies including the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya and Malayan Emergency; and then as head of the Central Africa and Aden department from 1960 to 1962 where he was involved in negotiations over the future status of Rhodesia made especially complex by Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Promoted to the post of assistant Under-Secretary for Commonwealth Relations and Affairs for Central Africa, where he remained from 1964 to 1967, he continued to be involved in the Rhodesia question and led the British delegation in negotiations in London and Salisbury.

Having impressed the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson during the Rhodesia talks, Wilson personally selected Watson in 1967 for the post of political adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Command based in Singapore where he oversaw arrangements for the withdrawal of British forces from Singapore and neighbouring countries. and promoted to Knight Commander (KCMG) in the 1967 Birthday Honours.