Richard Stratton

Sir Richard James Stratton (16 July 1924 – 26 July 1988) was a British diplomat. He served as the ambassador to Zaire and the Congo from 1974 to 1977, to Burundi from 1975 to 1977, and to Rwanda in 1977. He later was the high commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa from 1980 to 1984 and thus also the Governor of Pitcairn.

Early life and education Stratton was born on 16 July 1924 in London, and was educated at the King's School, Rochester, in Kent. He later attended Merton College, Oxford. Though having no previous experience in the region, according to the Daily Telegraph he was able to quickly adapt to challenging circumstances, including the aftermath of the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war and Pakistan's democratization experiments. He was succeeded as high commissioner and governor of Pitcairn by Terence Daniel O'Leary in 1984.

Retirement and death Stratton was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1982 Birthday Honours. After his career as a diplomat, he was an active member of the New Zealand Society in London. He never married. He died on 26 July 1988, at the age of 64. His obituary in The Times called him "gregarious and a great traveller ... a diplomat of the old school who knew how to cultivate the right people" and described his "career which virtually spanned the world, taking him from South America to Japan, and from Southern Africa to the foothills of the Himalayas."