He was the great-great-great-grandson of James Heath, the eighteenth-century engraver and associate member of the Royal Academy.
[4] While there, his considerable height (he stood 6 ft 8in tall) caused the visiting Soviet premiere, Nikita Khrushchev to embrace him and remark that he would have made a fine Communist.
He served as Counsellor with the OECD from 1971 to 1974, and then as the Head of the West African Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1975 to 1978.
From 1980 to 1985, he served as the United Kingdom's diplomatic representative to the Holy See, first as minister plenipotentiary and then from 1982 as ambassador.
[6] Heath's appointment represented the resumption of full diplomatic relations between Britain and the Holy See for the first time since Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church in 1534.