Diplomatic to the End

Wellington-born Beryl Smedley — who was a prominent figure in the Diplomatic Service Wives’ Association over several decades, and author of Partners in Diplomacy, an account of the changing role of British diplomatic wives (and the rare diplomatic husband) from the 17s to the late 198s — has died aged 88. Smedley’s niece Anne Corbett recalls her aunt in an obituary for the Guardian: “She was born Beryl Harley Brown, and had a promising position in the New Zealand prime minister’s office when she met Harold (later Sir Harold) Smedley, who was then on his first posting for the Commonwealth Relations Office. She never doubted, when he reached high commissioner rank in the 196s, that she and other senior diplomatic wives were still career women, and a vital part of the partnership heading a UK mission abroad. After Beryl died, some of the erstwhile young diplomatic wives from different Smedley missions testified to their luck that Beryl was not, as one of them put it, a ‘dreaded diplomatic queen bee’. They well remembered the difficulties that she had helped to ease in creative and unassuming ways. In retirement, Smedley raised funds for an eye clinic in Ghana, through links which went back to the beginning of her diplomatic life and renewed ties with New Zealand and was a strong supporter of its women’s associations.

Beryl Smedley: died January 4 2011