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Name: KINNEAR, Ian Albert Clark 'Tim' GMG
Nee: son of George Kinnear
Birth Date: 23.12.1924 Nairobi
Death Date: 29.10.2008 Tonbridge
Profession: HM Diplomatic Service
Married: In Dartford, Kent 1966 Rosemary Hartley b. 1939 Gravesend
Children: 2 dau
Book Reference: Pembroke, Who's Who
War Service: E.Af Reconnaisance Regt.
School: Marlborough, Lincoln Coll. Oxford
General Information:
Pembroke No. 132, 1933, Box 380, Nairobi
CMG 1974
Malayan Civil Service; Asst Sec Econ. Planning Unit, Kenya (1956-63); 1st Sec Commonwealth Relations Office (1953-6); 1st Sec Dar es Sallam (1969-71); Dep Governor Bermuda (1971-4); Senr Brit Trade Commissioner Hong Kong (1974-7); Consul-Gen San Francisco (1977-82)
Times 9 Jan 2009 The murder of Bermuda’s Governor, Sir Richard Sharples, in 1973 proved to be a turning point in the diplomatic careeer of Tim Kinnear, who was the British territory’s Deputy Governor at the time. He was immediately appointed Acting Governor until a permanent replacement was found, and later received a CMG for his handling of the affair.
The following year Kinnear was appointed Senior British Trade Commissioner in Hong Kong, and later became Britain’s Consul General in San Francisco. These were but a few of his many diplomatic roles. Earlier on in his career, he had been charged with helping to pacify tensions following a Communist insurrection in Malaya in 1948 and Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s.
Ian Albert Clark Kinnear, known as Tim from childhood, was born in Nairobi in 1924. His father, George Kinnear, was the long-standing editor of the East African Standard, a leading English-language newspaper, and a correspondent for The Times. Kinnear spent a carefree childhood in Kenya. He developed a love for the country, and Africa that was to be with him for life.
Kinnear attended Malborough College and in 1944 he signed up to the 1st East Africa Reconnaissance Regiment. He trained in East Africa and Sri Lanka before moving to India, where, upon reaching the Burmese border, the war ended. He went on to read Modern Greats at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he spent perhaps more time in the Ruskin School of Drawing than he should have done; drawing and painting became one of the great passions of his life. On finishing, he decided to enter the Colonial Service, attending the year-long Devonshire course in London.
He started his diplomatic career at a time when British imperial power was waning. In 1951 Kinnear was posted to Malaysia as District Officer (DO) in Bentong. A Communist insurrection had erupted in 1948. The British became embroiled in a drawn out and bloody campaign in the jungles and forests and in developing a campaign over people’s hearts and minds. Kinnear’s work was dictated by the policy of the High Commissioner, Sir Gerald Templer, who saw the DOs as the key to the successful hearts and minds campaign. European planters and their families were targets for violence, and Kinnear, like many others, slept with a pistol beneath his pillow.