John Kennett Starnes (February 5, 1918 – December 23, 2014) was a Canadian civil servant, diplomat, and novelist.
[1] Born in Montreal, Quebec to Henry Kennett Starnes and his wife, Altha Ella (née McCrea), Starnes was educated at Selwyn House School, Trinity College School, the Institute Sillig in Switzerland, the University of Munich and Bishop's University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree.
[3] After the War, Starnes joined the Public Service of Canada in the Department of External Affairs, where he served from 1944 to 1970.
He and his wife, fellow Montrealer Helen Gordon (née Robinson), began their diplomatic service abroad at the Canadian Embassy in Bonn from 1953 and from 1956 to 1958 at the NATO secretariat in Paris.
[7] His memoir, Closely Guarded: A Life in Canadian Security and Intelligence was published by the University of Toronto Press in 1998.