John Henniker-Major, 8th Baron Henniker

John Patrick Edward Chandos Henniker-Major, 8th Baron Henniker (19 February 1916 – 29 April 2004), known as Sir John Henniker-Major from 1965 to 1980, was a British peer, civil servant, and diplomat.

Early life and military service Henniker was the eldest son of John Ernest de Grey Henniker-Major, 7th Baron Henniker, and Molly Burnet. He was educated at Stowe and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a First in Modern Languages. He entered the Foreign Office in 1938, completing the entrance examinations at the top of his intake. He was appointed Third Secretary that year. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Henniker was released for military service. He was commissioned as an officer into the Rifle Brigade, eventually rising to the rank of Major. During the war he served in the Western Desert campaign, being wounded in Libya and hospitalised in Cairo. In 1943 he joined Fitzroy Maclean's mission in Yugoslavia (Macmis) whilst on secondment to the Special Operations Executive and appointed as a British Liaison Officer (BLO) to Koča Popović, the most prominent Partisan commander. In August 1944, the three men agreed the scope and tactics of the Operation Ratweek in central Serbia, which severely damaged German ambitions to withdraw troops from Greece and the southern Balkans. In 1945 he was awarded the Military Cross. a post he held until 1962, and was then Ambassador to Denmark from 1962 to 1966. He served as Assistant Under-Secretary of State from 1966 to 1967 but declined the ambassadorships to Brazil and the Republic of Ireland as he wanted to stay in England. In 1968 he became Director-General of the British Council, which he remained until 1972, before being invited to resign by Lord Fulton on the pretext of his wife's failing health. Henniker devoted the later part of his life to charitable causes, especially in Suffolk where his family had their ancestral seat.

In 1980 he succeeded as eighth Baron Henniker on the death of his 97-year-old father and assumed his seat in the House of Lords. In the Lords, he sat on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) benches, having joined the party upon its foundation in 1981, and following its demise he briefly served as a spokesman for the Liberal Democrats. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1956 Birthday Honours, a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1960 and knighted a KCMG in 1965 New Year Honours.