| Description | Written while Shuckburgh was Ambassador to Italy, the diary describes his engagements including lunches, dinner parties, and meetings with politicians and other diplomats. There is an index of names, dates, and page numbers at the beginning of the diary. On the inside front cover, there is a press cutting of a picture showing Shuckburgh meeting Prince Philip.
The diary includes descriptions of: pp /2 talks with the German ambassador and the Ghana ambassador, 2 January; /3 advising the Government against a unilateral cancellation of the concord; /5 conversation with George Thomson 'who was not looking forward to having to tell the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Malaysians etc... that we intend to pull out of the Far East by 1971', 5 January; /6 attending a party at which King Constantine of Greece explained why his coup had failed, 5 January; /9 a round table conference attended by British and Italian scientists; /10 conversation with Vietnam Ambassador, 12 January; /12 discusses 'the bringing forward of our withdrawal from the Far East and from the Gulf', 16 January; /14 meeting with King Constantine of Greece; /16 calling on the President, who is preoccupied with the consequences of the Sicilian earthquake, 23 January; /17 called on King Constantine, met Fafani; lunch for Admiral Bayly, Chief of Allied Staff, discussing Soviet naval presence in Mediterranean, 26 January; /21 evening with Ghana Ambassador, 27 January; /26 watching filming of 'The Shoes of the Fisherman', attending Mayor's reception for Chancellor Kiesinger, 2 February; /34 meeting with Malfatti to discuss arrangements for the Italian State visit in July 1969; /37 dinner party including Jennie Lee, 24 February; lunch with the Somali ambassador, splendid design for a writing desk by Bruce Tippett, 29 February; /45 news that Treasury has signed the contract for building the Porta Pia, 4 March; /48 dinner party for Italian Generals and Admirals, 8 March; /49 lunch with Lebanese ambassador, everybody very depressed about Vietnam and about the rush for gold, meeting Krishna Murti, 'who evaded every single question that was put to him', 9 March; /50 dinner with Dr Fummi to meet the conductor Guiliani and his wife, 9 March; /51 visited Dennis Vaughan to hear him play a clavichord made by Tom Goff, 10 March; /62 George Brown's resignation, 21 March; /70 meeting with Donna Giulia Crespi, discussing how to 'save the countryside and the historical beauties of Italy from vandalism', 29 March; /80 planning building 'the new Chancery', crisis in Canadian-French relations, opening of the Consular Conference, 9 April; /86 call from the US Ambassador; /88 lunch with President Saragat, 19 April; /92 correspondence with Paul Gore-Booth and Pat Dean [Assistant Under-Secretary, Foreign Office; later UK representative to United Nations and Ambassador in Washington] about the state of the Foreign Service and the sacking of Patrick Reilly, 20 May; /95 comments on student unrest in France and Italy, 20 May; /96 Lunch party including Gaja, who is pessimistic about the general political situation in Europe, 26 May; /99 lunch party discussing the likely effect of the French events on Italy, 27 May; /109-/111 Ted Heath's visit, describes his policies, 3 June; /114 meeting with Basil Spence and design of the new ambassador's residence, 10 June; /115 dinner with Enoch Powell, who holds 'disordered and unhelpful views about Europe and especially about Mediterranean defence, 10 June; /122 speech made at St George's School speech day, 15 June; /130 lunch party for King Constantine and Queen Anne Marie, 30 June; /146 'a pleasant hour gossiping with Ted Heath' concerning his speech about the state of the economy, Europe and the Common Market, and the Committee he has set up to study the workings of the Foreign Office, 17 July; /224 meeting with the Secretary of State, 22 October; /228 official visit to Sicily, 23-31 October; /269 lunch with President Saragat, 19 November; /282 King's College Cambridge Founder's Feast, with /289 trip to Malta.
Documents bound with the diary include:
/95a Letter to Shuckburgh from Patrick Reilly, thanking him for 'writing to Stewart about our misfortunes' and telling him about his sacking from the Foreign Service, 11 April;
/95b Letter from Shuckburgh to Paul Gore-Booth, discussing George Brown 'a nightmare to deal with' and the sacking of colleagues in the Foreign Office, 24 April;
/95c Letter from Shuckburgh to Sir Patrick Dean commiserating with him on 'having your successor announced over a year before you are due to retire', 25 April;
/95d Letter to Shuckburgh from Paul Gore-Booth, replying to his letter of 24th April (95b), 9 May;
/95e Letter to Shuckburgh from Sir Patrick Dean, replying to his letter of 25th April (95c), 13 May;
/95f Copy of letter from Shuckburgh to Patrick Dean, enclosing a draft letter to the Times in support of Sir Patrick Reilly, 28 May;
/95g Letter to Shuckburgh from Sir Patrick Dean, 4 June;
/95h Copy of letter from Shuckburgh to Sir Patrick Dean, 12 June;
/149a Copy of letter from Shuckburgh to the Foreign Office asking for a year's extension of service in Rome, 17 July;
/186 Copy of letter from Shuckburgh to the Secretary of State asking for a year's extension to his service in Rome, 2 September;
/219a Letter to Shuckburgh from Michael Stewart, refusing his request for an extra year's service in Rome, and explaining Civil Service policy on retirement, 4 October 1968;
/221a Letter to Shuckburgh from Malcolm Muntke, inviting him to visit him in the Castello di Lunghezza, 14 October;
/282a order of service, 6 December;
/289a press cutting of an article about ancient Maltese cart ruts, 15 December 1968. |