Oliver Kemp

Oliver Kemp (12 September 1916 – 2 November 1996) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to Togo from 1962 to 1965 and ambassador to Mongolia from 1967 to 1968.

Early life and education

Kemp was born on 12 September 1916, the son of Walter Kemp. He was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and Queen’s College, Oxford.

Career

Kemp entered the Foreign Service in 1945 after serving with the Armed Forces during World War II and was posted to Moscow in 1946, and then Alexandria in 1948 where he was consul. After being promoted to first secretary in 1949, he was appointed consul in Surabaya, before he returned to the Foreign Office as assistant to the labour adviser in 1953. In 1956, he was posted to Cairo. From 1958 to 1960, he served as first secretary and head of chancery in Laos. In 1962, following the establishment of an Embassy in Togo, he was appointed ambassador to Togo and consul-general there succeeding the chargé d’affaires, a post he held until 1964.

He then served as head of the UK delegation to the European Coal and Steel Community and deputy head of the UK delegation to the European Communities in Luxembourg from 1964 to 1967. From 1967 to 1968, he was ambassador to Mongolia, before he returned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he worked in the European affairs department dealing with Community law and the Treaty of Accession.

After retiring from the service, Kemp went to Brussels where, from 1973 to 1981, he served as director of the British Steel Corporation establishing links with the European Communities and the organisation representing steel producers at a time of a steel shortages in the UK. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1960 New Year Honours.