Escott Reid
Encyclopedia
Escott Graves Meredith Reid, CC
(January 21, 1905 - September 28, 1999), was a Canadian
diplomat
who helped shape the UN & NATO, author
, international public servant and academic administrator.
Born in Campbellford
, Ontario
, he was the son of Shropshire
native Rev. Alfred John Reid (1861–1957), by his wife Morna Irvine Meredith (1871–1962), the youngest daughter of Edmund Allen Meredith
and a god-daughter of George Irvine
. His Meredith grandfather had served as Deputy Under-Secretary of Canada, and Reid later occupied his very same offices at Parliament Hill
.
He received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in political science from Trinity College
, in the University of Toronto
in 1927. A Rhodes scholar, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and a Master of Arts degree in 1935 from Christ Church, Oxford
. Though academic jobs were scarce in 1930, he had won a Rockefeller Fellowship which enabled him to study the Canadian party and electoral systems in general and Saskatchewan
's in particular.
Turning down a position to teach at Harvard University
, from 1932 to 1938, he was the first full-time National Secretary for the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. He was active in the League for Social Reconstruction, an association of left-wing intellectuals founded in Montreal
and Toronto
in the winter of 1931-1932. He also joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the new social-democratic political party that took shape in 1932-1933. His left-wing views and his conviction that Canada should maintain neutrality in a renewed European war put him at odds with many CIIA members, and essentially made it necessary for him to find a new career path. From 1937 to 1938, he was the acting Professor of Government and Political Science at Dalhousie University
.
In 1939, he joined the Canadian Foreign Service and held positions in Washington, D.C.
, London
, San Francisco and Ottawa
, working on the creation of the United Nations
. He was an important member of that extraordinary generation of public servants who helped give Canadian statecraft in the 1940s and 1950s its reputation for excellence.
He accompanied Minister of Trade and Commerce James MacKinnon
on a tour of Latin America in 1941 which established trade agreements with several nations. From 1946 to 1949 he was Lester B. Pearson
's chief aide, and instrumental in devising the idea of a collective security alliance of Western democracies, which culminated in NATO.
In 1947, he was appointed Assistant Under-Secretary for External Affairs and was Deputy Under-Secretary from 1948 to 1952. He was a member of the Canadian delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations
in San Francisco in 1945. From 1952 to 1957, he was the High Commissioner for Canada to India
and from 1958 to 1962 he was Ambassador to Germany
. From 1962 to 1965, he was Director of the South-Asia and Middle East Department of the World Bank
. From 1965 to 1969, he was the first Principal of Glendon College
, York University
.
At Oxford
he had met and married Ruth Herriot, of Winnipeg
, and they had three children, including Timothy Escott Heriott Reid (b.1936), a Canadian educator, civil servant, advocate, and entrepreneur.
Reid spent a large part of his retirement at the farm he and his wife owned at Wakefield, Quebec
. From 1973 to 1989 he published seven books, all rooted in his personal experience while dealing with subjects of evident public interest. They included works about the World Bank
, the founding of the United Nations
, the making of the North Atlantic Treaty
, the Hungarian and Suez crises of 1956, his years in India and his friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru
, and, finally, his autobiography, 'Radical Mandarin', which is how he referred to himself.
Though thought by some to have been 'arrogant, given to excess, and a naïve liberal idealist', his vital contributions helped to shape some of the 20th century's most important international developments. During his service, Canadian diplomacy was at the forefront of the recognised world leaders, a status that declined rapidly after his departure. In 1971, Reid was made a Companion of the Order of Canada "for his services as a diplomat, international public servant and educator". In 1993, he received the Pearson Medal of Peace
for his work as a public servant
. He died in Ottawa
on, 28 September 1999.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(January 21, 1905 - September 28, 1999), was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
who helped shape the UN & NATO, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, international public servant and academic administrator.
Born in Campbellford
Campbellford, Ontario
Campbellford is a small town in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, in the municipality of Trent Hills.Located at , Campbellford lies approximately midway between Toronto and Ottawa. It is situated on both the Trent-Severn Waterway and the Trans Canada Trail. It can be reached from Highway...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, he was the son of Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
native Rev. Alfred John Reid (1861–1957), by his wife Morna Irvine Meredith (1871–1962), the youngest daughter of Edmund Allen Meredith
Edmund Allen Meredith
Edmund Allen Meredith LL.D., was Under Secretary of State for Canada; a prison reformer, writer, and the third principal of McGill University from 1846 to 1853.-Early life in Ireland:...
and a god-daughter of George Irvine
George Irvine (Canadian politician)
George Irvine was a Quebec lawyer, judge, professor and political figure. He represented Mégantic in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1867 to 1876 and from 1878 to 1884 and in the 1st Canadian Parliament as a Conservative.He was born in Quebec City in 1826, the son of Lt.-Colonel John...
. His Meredith grandfather had served as Deputy Under-Secretary of Canada, and Reid later occupied his very same offices at Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...
.
He received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in political science from Trinity College
University of Trinity College
The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...
, in the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1927. A Rhodes scholar, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and a Master of Arts degree in 1935 from Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. Though academic jobs were scarce in 1930, he had won a Rockefeller Fellowship which enabled him to study the Canadian party and electoral systems in general and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
's in particular.
Turning down a position to teach at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, from 1932 to 1938, he was the first full-time National Secretary for the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. He was active in the League for Social Reconstruction, an association of left-wing intellectuals founded in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
in the winter of 1931-1932. He also joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the new social-democratic political party that took shape in 1932-1933. His left-wing views and his conviction that Canada should maintain neutrality in a renewed European war put him at odds with many CIIA members, and essentially made it necessary for him to find a new career path. From 1937 to 1938, he was the acting Professor of Government and Political Science at Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
.
In 1939, he joined the Canadian Foreign Service and held positions in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, San Francisco and Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, working on the creation of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. He was an important member of that extraordinary generation of public servants who helped give Canadian statecraft in the 1940s and 1950s its reputation for excellence.
He accompanied Minister of Trade and Commerce James MacKinnon
James Angus MacKinnon
James Angus MacKinnon, was a Canadian politician.Born in Port Elgin, Ontario, he was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons representing the riding of Edmonton West in the 1935 federal election. A Liberal, he was re-elected in 1940 and 1945...
on a tour of Latin America in 1941 which established trade agreements with several nations. From 1946 to 1949 he was Lester B. Pearson
Lester B. Pearson
Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...
's chief aide, and instrumental in devising the idea of a collective security alliance of Western democracies, which culminated in NATO.
In 1947, he was appointed Assistant Under-Secretary for External Affairs and was Deputy Under-Secretary from 1948 to 1952. He was a member of the Canadian delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in San Francisco in 1945. From 1952 to 1957, he was the High Commissioner for Canada to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and from 1958 to 1962 he was Ambassador to Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. From 1962 to 1965, he was Director of the South-Asia and Middle East Department of the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. From 1965 to 1969, he was the first Principal of Glendon College
Glendon College
Glendon College is one of the two campuses of York University, Canada's third-largest university, in Toronto, Ontario. A bilingual liberal arts college with 84 full-time faculty members and a student population of about 2400, Glendon is located in midtown Toronto's Lawrence Park neighbourhood...
, York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
.
At Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
he had met and married Ruth Herriot, of Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, and they had three children, including Timothy Escott Heriott Reid (b.1936), a Canadian educator, civil servant, advocate, and entrepreneur.
Reid spent a large part of his retirement at the farm he and his wife owned at Wakefield, Quebec
Wakefield, Quebec
Wakefield is a village on the western shore of the Gatineau River, at the confluence of the La Pêche River in the Outaouais region of Quebec. The village, named after the town of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, is now the southern edge of the municipality of La Pêche, and was founded in 1830...
. From 1973 to 1989 he published seven books, all rooted in his personal experience while dealing with subjects of evident public interest. They included works about the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, the founding of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, the making of the North Atlantic Treaty
North Atlantic Treaty
The North Atlantic Treaty is the treaty that brought NATO into existence, signed in Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949. The original twelve nations that signed it and thus became the founding members of NATO were:...
, the Hungarian and Suez crises of 1956, his years in India and his friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
, and, finally, his autobiography, 'Radical Mandarin', which is how he referred to himself.
Though thought by some to have been 'arrogant, given to excess, and a naïve liberal idealist', his vital contributions helped to shape some of the 20th century's most important international developments. During his service, Canadian diplomacy was at the forefront of the recognised world leaders, a status that declined rapidly after his departure. In 1971, Reid was made a Companion of the Order of Canada "for his services as a diplomat, international public servant and educator". In 1993, he received the Pearson Medal of Peace
Pearson Medal of Peace
The Pearson Medal of Peace is an award given out annually by the United Nations Association in Canada to recognize an individual Canadian's "contribution to international service". Nominations are made by any Canadian for any Canadian, excluding self-nominations. The award is named in honour of...
for his work as a public servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
. He died in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
on, 28 September 1999.