Member of the European Parliament
Which position did Gladwyn Jebb hold from May 1966 to 1973?
Gladwyn Jebb Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb , 1st Baron Gladwyn ( 25 April 1900 – 24 October 1996 ) , was a prominent British civil servant , diplomat and politician who was the Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations from October 1945 to February 1946 . Early life and career . The son of Sydney Jebb , of Firbeck Hall , Yorkshire , Jebb was educated at Sandroyd School , Eton College , then Magdalen College , Oxford , gaining a First in History . In 1929 he married Cynthia Noble , daughter of Sir Saxton Noble , 3rd Baronet . Noble was granddaughter of Sir Andrew Noble , 1st Baronet and the great-granddaughter of Isambard Kingdom Brunel . The couple had three children , one son and two daughters : Miles , Vanessa , married to the historian Hugh Thomas , and Stella , married to the scientist Joel de Rosnay . Jebbs granddaughter is the international best selling author Tatiana de Rosnay . Jebb entered the British Diplomatic Service in 1924 and served in Tehran , where he became known to Harold Nicolson and to Vita Sackville-West . He later served in Rome as well as at the Foreign Office in London , where he served in such positions as Private Secretary to the Head of the Diplomatic Service . Second World War . In August 1940 , Jebb was appointed to the Ministry of Economic Warfare with the temporary rank of Assistant Under-Secretary . He was later appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Special Operations Executive . In February 1942 , with a change of Minister of Economic Warfare , Jebb was relieved of that appointment and returned to the Foreign Office . He was appointed Head of the Reconstruction Department and in 1943 was made a Counsellor . In that capacity , he attended numerous international conferences , including those at Tehran , Yalta , Dumbarton Oaks and Potsdam . Acting UN Secretary-General . After the Second World War , Jebb served as Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations in August 1945 and served as Acting United Nations Secretary-General from October 1945 to February 1946 , when the first Secretary-General was appointed , Trygve Lie . Jebb remains the only UN Secretary-General or Acting Secretary-General to come from a permanent member state of the UN Security Council . Ambassador . Returning to London , Jebb served as Deputy to the Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin at the Conference of Foreign Ministers before serving as the Foreign Offices United Nations Adviser ( 1946–1947 ) . He represented the United Kingdom at the Brussels Treaty Permanent Commission with personal rank of ambassador . Jebb became the United Kingdoms Ambassador to the United Nations from 1950 to 1954 and to Paris from 1954 to 1960 . He was the UKs first permanent UN representative . In the latter role , he was angered that secret negotiations between the British , French and Israelis in advance of the Suez invasion in 1956 took place at Sèvres without his knowledge and , in certain respects , that he was sidelined by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at the Paris big power summit in 1960 . Jebbs rather grand manner caused Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd to coin an epigram : Youre a deb , Sir Gladwyn Jebb . Political career . Jebb was knighted in 1949 . On 12 April 1960 Jebb was created a hereditary peer and as Baron Gladwyn , of Bramfield in the County of Suffolk . London Gazette He became involved in politics as a member of the Liberal Party . He was Deputy Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords from 1965 to 1988 and spokesman on foreign affairs and defence . An ardent European , he served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1973 to 1976 , where he was also the Vice-President of the Parliaments Political Committee . Jebb unsuccessfully contested the Suffolk seat in the European Parliament in 1979 . When asked in the early 1960s why he had joined the Liberal Party , he replied that the Liberals were a party without a general and that he was a general without a party . Like many Liberals , he passionately believed that education was the key to social reform . Death . Jebb died on 24 October 1996 at the age of 96 , and is buried at St Andrews Church , Bramfield in Suffolk . Honours . - GCMG , 1954 ( preceded by a in 1949 and a CMG in 1942 ) - GCVO , 1957 - Companion of the Bath , 1947 - Grand Croix de la Légion dHonneur , 1957 Publications and papers . Publications by Jebb include : - Is Tension Necessary? , 1959 - Peaceful Coexistence , 1962 - The European Idea , 1966 - Half-way to 1984 , 1967 - De Gaulles Europe , or , Why the General says No , 1969 - Europe after de Gaulle , 1970 - The Memoirs of Lord Gladwyn , 1972 The papers of 1st Lord Gladwyn were deposited at Churchill Archives Centre at the University of Cambridge by his son , 2nd Lord Gladwyn , between 1998 and 2000 . Bibliography . - Sean Greenwood , Titan at the Foreign Office : Gladwyn Jebb and the Shaping of the Modern World ( Leiden , Brill , 2008 ) ( History of International Relations , Diplomacy , and Intelligence , 5 ) . External links . - Cambridge Archives Centre – Gladwyn Papers