Diplomat, Author. Sir John Henniker-Major was recognized as a 20th-century British diplomat as well as a long-time civil servant and military hero. Born the eldest son, his parents were John Ernest de Grey Henniker-Major, 7th Baron Henniker, and Molly Burnet. He was well-educated, attending Stowe and Trinity College at Cambridge. Upon earning a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Modern Languages, he entered the Foreign Office in 1938, mastering the entrance examinations with the highest grade and appointed Third Secretary. With the start of World War II, he enlisted as a commissioned officer into the Rifle Brigade, eventually rising to the rank of major. During the war, he served in the Western Desert Campaign, where he was wounded in Libya and hospitalized in Cairo. In 1943 he was recruited by Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean to join his mission to occupied Yugoslavia, and, for two years, he worked with a distinguished group, which included Bill Deakin, Randolph Churchill and Evelyn Waugh. Their task, to make contact with the charismatic communist guerrilla leader "Tito" , has been told in detail in books: Maclean's "Eastern Approaches" in 1949 and Deakin's "Embattled Mountain" in 1971. In 1945 he was awarded the Military Cross for this assignment. After the war, he returned to the foreign office and assigned various positions around the world including the far East, seven years in Argentina, and two years in Serbia. In 1960 he was appointed Ambassador to Jordan, a post he held until 1962, and was then Ambassador to Denmark from 1962 to 1966. He served as Assistant Under-Secretary of State from 1966 to 1967 but declined the ambassadorships to Brazil and the Republic of Ireland as he wanted to stay in England. In 1968 he became Director-General of the British Council. In 1972 with nearly 35 years in the Foreign Office, he was invited to resign by Lord Fulton on the pretext of his wife's failing health; his first wife died in 1974. Henniker devoted the later part of his life to charitable causes, especially in their ancestral estate in Suffolk. At his estate, he and his second wife restored a walled garden with 18th-century greenhouses, provided horticultural courses, and a venue for concerts and lectures for the community to enjoy. Upon the death of his 97-year-old father in February of 1980 he succeeded as 8th Baron Henniker of Stratford-upon-Slaney and the 5th Baron of Hartismere and assumed his seat in the House of Lords. In the Lords, he briefly served as a spokesman for the Liberal Democrats. He also inherited the 2,000-acre estate of Thornham Magna, in north Suffolk. The totally impractical, 95-roomed hall had burned down in 1953. At that point, the family moved to a smaller house on the estate, which was formerly occupied by the land agent. The family fortune was basically lost before World War I with economic depression of agriculture and high taxation. He was appointed Companion, Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) in 1956. He was appointed Commander, Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.) in 1960. He was appointed Knight Commander, Order of St. Michael and St. George (K.C.M.G.) in 1965. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of Suffolk in 1988. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) by University of East Anglia in Norwich in 1989 and was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Law (LL.D.) by New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire in 1993. With his first wife, two sons and a daughter were born. As a widower, he remarried in 1976. Upon his death, his oldest son, Mark, became the Ninth Baron Henniker. His autobiography, "Painful Extractions," was published in 2002.