Urquhart, Sir Brian Edward, son of Murray McNeil Urquhart, artist, of Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, and Bertha Rendell, teacher, d. of Edward Pratt Rendell of Bridport, Dorset; b. 28 Feb. 1919; adm. Jan. 1932 (KS); left July 1937; Ch. Ch. Oxf., matric. 1937, hon. student 1985; 2nd Lieut. Dorsetshire Regt. Jan. 1940, served 1st Airborne Divn. (Maj. ), severely injured 1942 when his parachute failed to open completely in practice; served North Africa, Sicily and NW Europe, despatches (NW Europe) Mar. 1945, MBE Oct. 1945; United Nations official Aug. 1945; private sec. to the sec. -gen. 1946-9; Chief of Specialised Agencies Section 1949-51; dir. Office of Special Political Affairs 1952-71; Under sec. -gen. for Special Political Affairs 1974-86; set up the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency; organised and directed UN peacekeeping ops. in Middle East, Kashmir, Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon etc.; KCMG 1986; scholar-in-residence Ford Foundn. 1986-96; Carnegie Foundn. Wateler Peace Prize; Grand Officer, Order of Cedars, Govt. of Lebanon; Order of the Rising Sun, Emperor of Japan; Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom Medal; Dag Hammarskjold Medal; published numerous articles for New York Review of Books, New Yorker Magazine, Ford Foundation and Foreign Affairs Magazine; author of Dag Hammarskjold: A Biography 1972, Ralph Bunche: An American Life, and A Memoir, A Life in Peace and War 1987; numerous hon. degrees; hon. Fellow of the Sch. 1989; m. 1st, 31 Mar. 1944 Alfreda, d. of Constant Huntington, publisher, of Amberley, Sussex; 2nd, 26 Apr. 1963 Sidney Damrosch Howard, journalist, d. of Sidney Coe Howard, writer, New York City, USA; d. 2 Jan. 2021.