Ronald Burroughs

Ronald Arthur Burroughs (4 June 1917 – 24 May 1980) was a British diplomat who served as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Algeria between 1971 and 1973. A letter he wrote to Sir James Craig in 1971 concerning The Spanish Ambassador’s Suitcase became the title of a book by Matthew Parris and Andrew Bryson on amusing unofficial letters of diplomacy. In the book Parris states that in ‘diplomatic circles The Spanish Ambassador’s Suitcase despatch is by impute probably the greatest funny of them all’.

Life Ronald Arthur Burroughs was born on 4 June 1917 in Tibet, the son of the Rev. Henry Frederick Burroughs, a missionary, and his wife Ada. After Portugal he was made British Charge D'Affaires in South Yemen between 1967 and 1968. In 1969 he returned to England as an Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before being seconded to the Home Office as the UK’s Representative to the Northern Ireland Government where he handled security in the province.

Burroughs was made British Ambassador to Algeria, a position he held from 1971 until his retirement in 1973. A letter he wrote to Sir James Craig in 1971 concerning The Spanish Ambassador’s Suitcase became the title of a book by Matthew Parris and Andrew Bryson on amusing unofficial letters of diplomacy. In the book Parris states that in ‘diplomatic circles The Spanish Ambassador’s Suitcase despatch is by impute probably the greatest funny of them all’.

Ronald Burroughs died on 24 May 1980 at the age of 62. In 1947 he married Jean Valerie McQuillen with whom he had two daughters. In 1971 he married secondly Audrey Cunha. There were no children by the second marriage.