bout de papier, Vol. 20, No. 4 (2004) — Spring/Summer 2004 // Printemps/Été 2004, p. 30
Angus Matheson came to External Affairs, as many of us did, in the last half of the 1940s, then still young, yet a veteran of World War I. Some of us joined External Affairs as Foreign Service Officers hoping to be involved in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy in Ottawa as well as abroad. Others like Angus wanted to be administrators serving the same broad purpose. We were to be the heirs of a group of officers, then in or approaching their prime, who were intent on Canada having a role in ensuring that another such war be avoided. The idea of the proposed United Nations Organization sat well with our elders who had seen the failures of the League of Nations and were determined to remedy them. We consider ourselves modest contributors to the objective of avoiding another world war and, through the United Nations, trying to influence human behaviours to become more civilized.
Angus knew from personal experience how important these goals were. He served in the Canadian Army from 1941 to 1946 entering External Affairs in the latter year. He performed his role in this larger scheme by being a superior administrator and consular officer. He served as Vice consul in Tokyo 1951 to 1953, in San Francisco 1956 and in Washington as Consul 1956 to 1958. At Headquarters he served as Head of the all-important Finance Division, and as Deputy Inspector General. He was an exemplary head of mission as High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago 1974 to 1977. From 1982 to his retirement he was Deputy Co-ordinator, Access to Information and Privacy. In all these roles he was top-notch, outstanding in a group of able administrative officers.
When it came time about 1985 for many of us veterans to retire from the foreign service, we put on our heads together and decided to investigate the posibility of establishing some kind of foreign service retirement group. It took us a year to do it but out of our efforts came the Retired Heads of Mission Association, RHOMA. And we asked Angus to be our financial administrator.
Angus Matheson died in Ottawa on October 18, 2003, predeceased by his wife, Dorothy, and survived by a daughter and two sons.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 20, No. 4 (2004) — Spring/Summer 2004 // Printemps/Été 2004, p. 30. Read the rest of this issue →
