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William James Macdonald Paterson
(1911-1976), Civil servant; British Deputy High Commissioner for South IndiaSitter in 1 portrait
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Eleonora Ford
29 April 2020, 16:42
William James Macdonald PATERSON was born in Glasgow on 13th April 1911. After reading Law at Glasgow University he joined the Army and was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Towards the end of the war he volunteered to learn Hungarian and was seconded to the British Military Mission in Budapest where he met his future wife, Eleonora Vattay, the daughter of General Vattay, Head of the Hungarian Military Cabinet and ADC to Admiral Horthy.
After the war he joined the British Foreign Office and served in the Lebanon, Syria, Chile and Iraq where he was on the Committee of the Baghdad Pact
After the Iraqi Revolution in 1956 he was awarded a CMG.
He was posted to Norway in 1959. In 1961 he was appointed Deputy High Commissioner to Madras in India.
He was posted as Consul-General to São Paulo in Brazil in 1965 before taking up the post of Head of Government Hospitality in London. A posting which he held until his death, aged 64, in 1974.
The obituary in The Telegraph stated:
‘Mr Paterson a “man of parts” was a model representative of Britain’s Foreign Service: affable yet discreet, knowledgable yet modest, and completely dedicated to the interests of his country. His cheerful welcoming presence was familiar to many “VIP’s” arriving at London Airport. It was said that some, on seeing a Minister in the reception party, would anxiously inquire: “Who is that with Willie Paterson?”
We was survived by his wife and a daughter and son.