Career
After retiring from Her Majesty Diplomatic Service, she was appointed President of the Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge from 2001 until 2008. Born to Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Beckett and Constance Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Veronica Evelyn Sutherland was appointed Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General with responsibility for economic and social affairs She was the first woman to hold this post and to serve the Commonwealth at such a high rank.
She took up her Commonwealth post in February 1999, succeeding Sir Humphrey Maud, Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George, who was retiring.
She said at the time:
During the course of my lifetime the Commonwealth has left behind its imperial past and grown into a mature and dynamic, modern organisation of 54 equal and sovereign nations. I am excited by the prospect of making an active contribution to the Commonwealth as an increasing force for good in the world.
While she has been in the vanguard of the promotion of opportunities for professional women in the public service, this admirable commitment to equality sits uneasily alongside her zeal when as Head of Security Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the 1980s she was responsible for enforcing within the Diplomatic Service the Thatcher administration"s policy of seeking out and dismissing male homosexuals, or those suspected of homosexuality, in government service in general.
