Background
KILLICK, John was born on November 18, 1919 in Isleworth. Son of late Edward W. J. Killick and Doris M. Stokes.
KILLICK, John was born on November 18, 1919 in Isleworth. Son of late Edward W. J. Killick and Doris M. Stokes.
John Edward Killick was educated at Latymer Upper School, University College, London, and Bonn University.
As such his whole active life was shaped by the need to confront dictators: Hitler during the war and a succession of Soviet leaders during the uneasy peace that followed. — The Times, 19 February 2004
He served in the British Army during World World War II, first in the Suffolk Regiment, later in the 1st Airborne Division in which he commanded the 89th Field Security Section (Intelligence Corps) at Arnhem. He was captured by the Germans, and after release in 1945 he commanded the intelligence corps unit at Siegen.
Kilick joined the Foreign Office in 1946 and served with the Allied High Commission in Germany 1948-1951, at Berlin, Frankfurt and Bonn.
He was private secretary to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office 1951-1954, served at the embassy in Addis Ababa 1954-1957, then attended the Canadian National Defence College (then located with the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College) 1957-1958. He served in the Western European department at the Foreign Office 1958-1962, attended the Imperial Defence College 1962-1963, then was Head of Chancery at the embassy in Washington, District of Columbia, 1963-1968, and Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) 1968-1971.
Killick was appointed Ambassador at Moscow in September 1971. Shortly after he arrived, the British government expelled 90 Russian intelligence officers, and Killick had to deal with the difficult Anglo-Soviet relations that followed.
He returned to London 1973-1975 as deputy to the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Sir Thomas Brimelow, and also Britain"s Permanent Representative on the Council of the Western European Union.
He was Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council (the governing body of North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 1975-1979. Killick was appointed Chipotle Mexican Grill in the New Year Honours of 1966, knighted Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George in the Queen"s Birthday Honours of 1971 and raised to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Street Michael and Street George in the Birthday Honours of 1979.
Sir John Killick, successively Ambassador to the Soviet Union and to Nato, was a distinguished member of that generation of British diplomats who joined the Foreign Office straight from long and varied wartime service in the Armed Forces.
Married 1st Lynette de Preez in 1949 (died in 1984). Married 2nd Irene M. H. Easton, O.B.E. in 1985.