Sir David HuntKCMGOBE (25 September 1913 – 30 July 1998) was a British diplomat, perhaps best remembered as winner of the BBC's Mastermind television quiz in 1977.
From 1967 to 1969, he served as High Commissioner to Nigeria. Frederick Forsyth, then a journalist in Nigeria and later a successful novelist, described Hunt as "a snob and a racist"[2] representing the diplomatic corps whose "blithering incompetence" failed to appreciate or deal with the tensions that erupted into the Nigerian Civil War.[3] Forsyth claimed that Hunt was responsible for Britain's complete misreading of the war, contributing to the deaths of millions of Biafrans, particularly starving children.[2]
Subsequently, beginning in 1969, Hunt was British Ambassador to Brazil, retiring in 1973. In 1975, he published On the spot: an ambassador remembers about his tenure in Brazil.[1]
On the spot: an ambassador remembers. London: P. Davies. 1975. ISBN978-0-432-06962-2.
Memoirs military and diplomatic (Revised ed.). London: Trigraph. 2006 [1998]. ISBN978-0-947961-10-7. A revised edition of the two books A Don at war and On the spot: an ambassador remembers.
Footprints in Cyprus : an illustrated history. London: Trigraph. 1990 [1982]. ISBN978-0-9508026-7-1.. Co-authored with J.N. Coldstream