John Beith

Sir John Beith KCMG (4 April 1914 – 4 September 2000) was a British diplomat, ambassador to Israel and Belgium.

When the German army approached Athens in April 1941 the British Embassy was evacuated and Beith spent the rest of the war in Buenos Aires.

He was Ambassador to Israel 1963–65,[1] assistant Secretary-General of NATO 1966–67 and Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office 1967–69, during which he led the British delegation in talks on the future of Gibraltar, which ended with the 1967 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum.

[4] Few postwar British diplomats had a greater gift for making friends in the countries to which they were accredited, or for solving knotty problems over a drink or meal, than Sir John Beith ... Foreigners rightly considered him a man of utmost probity, who saw both sides of a question and with whom it was a pleasure to do business.

Her father's sister, Mary Gilmour, had married Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen who was ambassador to Belgium 1944–47.