page_title: Ivison Macadam
section_title: Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)
hierarchical_section_title: Ivison Macadam / Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Sir Ivison Macadam's Knight Bachelor badge. He was knighted in 1955. Later also elevated to Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1974, which is in the sole gift of the Monarch.
context_page_description: Sir Ivison Stevenson Macadam KCVO Kt CBE CStJ FRSE FKC was the first Director-General of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the founding President of the National Union of Students.
  He was also the Editor and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Annual Register of World Events; a longtime member of the editorial board of the Round Table and sat on the governing bodies of King’s College, London and other organisations.
context_section_description: He was the first Secretary and Director-General of the Royal Institute of International Affairs serving as its chief executive between 1929 and 1955 based at Chatham House in St. James's Square, London, S.W.1.
  To enable the Institute to increase the breadth and range of its activities, he steadily expanded office and meeting space for the Institute  by acquiring the freehold properties adjoining 10, St James Square (Chatham House) 
  Macadam was responsible for numerous international conferences around the world. He organised the first Commonwealth Relations Conference at Hart House, University of Toronto, Canada in 1933 (the first Commonwealth conference per se), followed by others at Lapstone near Sydney, Australia in 1938, at Chatham House, London in 1945, at Lucknow, India  in  1950., and at Lahore, Pakistan in 1954  Also various Institute of Pacific Relations Conferences, including that at Banff, Canada 1933. He was a participant in the Congress of Europe at the Hague, Netherlands in 1948.
  He travelled to the British Dominions and helped the independent establishment of the various Commonwealth Institutes of International Affairs or where such bodies had earlier been established in both Australia and Canada to generate financial support from benefactors in order that they could have their own full-time secretariats. The Canadian Institute of International Affairs funding 1932; the Australian funding 1934. The formation of the Institutes in New Zealand 1934; in South Africa 1934; in Indian 1936; in Pakistan 1947.
  At Chatham House he is remembered for his Scottish drive and application ... He organised persons, events and work with equal stern objectivity.
   The Times, 24 December 1974
  He was the institute’s chief executive for a period of 25 years during which it grew from a promising pioneering experiment into a well established and internationally respected centre for the study and discussion of world affairs.
  When asked who founded Chatham House, Ivison would reply with a list of distinguished people, among whom Lionel Curtis took pride of place, and would emphasise the great amount of time that they devoted in shaping the institute’s policy in the early days. This no doubt was true, but it was Ivison who had to carry their ideas into practice, raise the money and recruit the staff.
  
  He was a gifted promoter of Chatham House and its objectives, obtaining endowments in Britain and the Commonwealth and also gaining the support of the great American foundations, Carnegie, Rockefeller and later Ford. In this important American connection he was greatly helped by his American wife, Caroline, whose numerous friends in her own country opened many doors.
   The Times, 31 December 1974
   …he was a most efficient organiser, but an organiser not only of administration and action but also of men and women, who worked with him and for him as loyally as he worked for their common enterprise. By profession an engineer, by circumstance of war a soldier, he brought to his life’s work an engineer's concern for structure, a soldier's care for discipline with comradeship. Straightforward, without airs, he was essentially a practical man, who saw what needed to be done and did it, or saw that it was done.
   The Times, 6 January 1974.
caption: Ivison Macadam was knighted in 1955. Sir Ivison's Knight Bachelor breast badge
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