Archibald Duncan Wilson

Sir Archibald Duncan Wilson (12 August 1911 - 20 September 1983) was a British diplomat and Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Wilson was born on 12 August 1911 in Winchester to Archibald Edward Wilson and Ethel Wilson. He was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford where he studied Classics.^[1]

After his studies in Oxford he applied for the Diplomatic Service but due to a back ailment was not successful. He then spent a year teaching in Westminster School and then joined the British Museum as Assistant keeper in 1937.

During the war the opportunity arose to join the Foreign Office and after the war he served in Berlin for the Allied Control Commission for Germany.

He then specialised in Communist affairs and held the following positions:

• Charge d'affaires in Peking
• Ambassador to Yugoslavia 1964-1968
• Ambassador to the USSR 1968-1971

He retired from the diplomatic service in 1971 and was appointed Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. While at Corpus he was also Chairman of the Appeal Committee of Cambridge University and was instrumental in the procurement of a new building to house the Faculty of Music. He retired from the Mastershipin 1980 and was succeeded by Michael William McCrum

Wilson married Elizabeth née Fleming in 1937 and had three children, Elizabeth, Catherine (born 1940) and David (1941–1975).

He wrote several books including,

• Life and Times of Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (1970)
• Tito's Yugoslavia (1979)
• Leonard Woolf: A political biography, Ed. Powell, (1978), 282 pages. ISBN13: 9780312480011, ISBN10: 0312480016 . A political biography of this notorious Fabian member of the famous literary and political Bloomsbury Group, (1880–1969), the husband of theatrical authoress Virginia Woolf, née Adeline Virginia Stephen, (1882–1941), and one of the Political think-tank Architects of the League of Nations.

He died on 20 September 1983 aged 71.

Academic offices
Preceded by Sir Frank Godbould Lee	Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 1971-1980	Succeeded by Michael William McCrum

His daughter Elizabeth married Romanian pianist Radu Lupu. He was a good friend of musician composers Benjamin Britten and Mstislav Rostropovich.

References

1. ^ http://holmesacourt.org/d12/i0000636.htm

Persondata
Name	Wilson, Archibald Duncan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	12 August 1911
Place of birth
Date of death	20 September 1983
Place of death