Introduction
This Witness Seminar examined the history, role and functions of the British Embassy / High Commission1 in Pretoria, principally from the testimonies and perspectives of those who served there. This was the penultimate in a series of six witness seminars sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It is part of the Witness Seminar Programme of the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), King’s College London. Previous seminars covered the High Commission in New Delhi (held on 17 November 2011), the Embassy in Beijing (held on 7 June 2012), the High Commission in Canberra (8 November 2012), and the UK Mission to the United Nations New York (22 May 2013). Since 1986 the ICBH Witness Seminar Programme has conducted nearly 100 witness seminars on a variety of subjects: two in particular have related to the functions of British Embassies: in Washington (held in 1997)2 and in Moscow (held in 1999).3 Both of these witness seminars were chaired by Lord Wright of Richmond and both have been published. These witness seminars have been well received by the academic community, who have increasingly come to see that it is important to examine and analyse how Embassies and High Commissions have worked historically in the promotion of British policy overseas, and also by practitioners. A recent volume (2009) on The Washington Embassy, edited by Michael Hopkins, Saul Kelly and John Young, demonstrated precisely why it is necessary to know more about how UK Embassies operate and has suggested why Embassies will continue to be important for those who study diplomacy. The volume, as the introduction suggested, offered ‘valuable insights into change and continuity in British diplomatic practice’ over the period; it also showed ‘how the balance of attention … varied according to the pressure of circumstances, the current priorities of the government in London and the preferences of individual ambassadors’; and, importantly, confirmed ‘the pivotal role’ played by the Embassy and the Ambassadors in maintaining healthy bilateral relations. However, the editors have also pointed out that ‘there are real difficulties in studying the broad work of the embassy’—how it interacted with local staff; precisely how it performed day-to-day necessary social tasks; and so forth.4 The significance of history and the importance of gathering and utilising oral history interviews were identified in the report of the Foreign Affairs Committee, The Role of the FCO in UK Government (29 April 2011). In oral evidence the then Foreign Secretary 1
When in June 1994 South Africa re-entered the Commonwealth, the Embassy went back to being designated a High Commission. 2 G. Staerck (ed), ‘The Role of the British Embassy in Washington: Witness Seminar’, Contemporary British History, Vol12 No3 (1998), pp. 115-38. 3 G. Staerck (ed), ‘The Role of HM Embassy in Moscow: Witness Seminar’, Contemporary British History, Vol 14 No3 (2001), pp. 149-61. 4 M.F. Hopkins, S. Kelly and J.W. Young, The Washington Embassy: British Ambassadors to the United States, 1939-77 (2009), p. 2.
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