Martin Le Quesne
Sir Martin Le Quesne KCMG was a British diplomat, ambassador to Mali and Algeria and high commissioner to Nigeria.Biography
Charles Martin Le Quesne, son of Charles Thomas Le Quesne, was educated at Shrewsbury School and Exeter College, Oxford. He served in the Royal Artillery 1940–45 and joined the Foreign Service in 1946. He served at Baghdad, Bahrain and Rome, and in the Foreign Office, before being appointed chargé d'affaires in Mali when that country gained independence from France in 1960; subsequently he was Ambassador there 1961–64. After another post in the Foreign Office 1964–68, he was Ambassador to Algeria 1968–71. He was deputy Under-Secretary at the FCO 1971–74, with responsibility for Africa and the Middle East.
Le Quesne was High Commissioner to Nigeria 1974–76. His time in Nigeria was brought to an unlucky end by an attempted military coup by Lt. Col. Buka Suka Dimka, who ambushed and assassinated the president, Murtala Mohammed on 13 February 1976. Dimka then visited Le Quesne and asked him to relay a message to General Gowon in London. Le Quesne refused, but the visit had compromised his position and he was expelled by Mohammed's successor, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Le Quesne was then within a year of his statutory retirement age, so he retired to Jersey and was a member of the States of Jersey 1978–90.
Le Quesne was appointed CMG in the New Year Honours of 1963 and knighted KCMG in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1974.
