Gladwyn Jebb

Hubert Miles Gladwyn Jebb, 1st Baron Gladwyn, GCMG, GCVO, CB, known as Gladwyn Jebb (25 April 1900 – 24 October 1996), was a prominent British civil servant, diplomat and politician as well as the first Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Acting UN Secretary-General
After World War II, he served as Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations in August 1945. He was appointed Acting United Nations Secretary-General from October 1945 to February 1946 until the appointment of the first Secretary-General Trygve Lie.

Ambassador
Returning to London, Jebb was Deputy to the Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin at the Conference of Foreign Ministers before serving as the Foreign Office's United Nations Adviser (1946-47). He represented the United Kingdom at the Brussels Treaty Permanent Commission with personal rank of Ambassador. He became the United Kingdom's Ambassador to the United Nations from 1950-1954 and to Paris from 1954-1960.

Political career
In 1960 Jebb was made a hereditary peer and as Baron Gladwyn became involved in politics as a member of the Liberal Party. He was Deputy Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords 1965-1988 and spokesman on foreign affairs and defence. An supporter of the European Union, he served as a Member of the European Parliament 1973-1976 where he was also the Vice-President of the Parliament's Political Committee. He tried to be elected to the European Parliament in 1979.

When asked why he had joined the Liberal party in the early 1960s, 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
He died in 1996, and is buried at St. Andrew's, Bramfield in the county of Suffolk.

Lady Gladwyn
Jebb's wife, Cynthia, Lady Gladwyn, was a noted diarist of their times in Paris and a hostess of Liberal and London politics. She was the great-grand daughter of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Honours
 Commander of the CMG 1942
 KCMG in 1949
 GCMG, 1954
 GCVO, 1957
 Companion of the Bath, 1947
 Grand Croix de la Légion d'Honneur, 1957

Publications and papers
Publications by Baron Gladwyn include:
 Is Tension Necessary?, 1959
 Peaceful Co-existence, 1962
 The European Idea, 1966
 Half-way to 1984, 1967
 De Gaulle's Europe, or, Why the General says No, 1969
 Europe after de Gaulle, 1970
 The Memoirs of Lord Gladwyn, 1972

Other websites
 Cambridge Archives Centre - Gladwyn Papers

Category:1900 births
Category:1996 deaths
Category:Companions of the Bath
Category:United Kingdom Life Peers
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom
Category:United Kingdom Barons
Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom
Category:Liberal members of the House of Lords
Category:United Nations Secretaries-General