Geoffrey Arthur


Sir Geoffrey George Arthur, was a British diplomat and academic administrator.
He was educated at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford. His university education was interrupted by war service. He served in Egypt, Iran and Iraq, and on returning to Oxford, transferred from studying classics to Persian and Arabic. He graduated with first class honours.
He joined the Foreign Office in 1947, serving in Baghdad, Ankara, Cairo and Bonn. He was Ambassador to Kuwait from 1967 to 1970. From 1970 to 1971, he was the last Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and oversaw the break up of the British territory in the Persian Gulf into the independent states of Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. From 1975 to 1984, he was Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. He was on the governing body of Abingdon School from 1978-1985.