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Sir John Arthur Pilcher
GCMG
Sir John Arthur Pilcher GCMG
British Ambassador to Japan
	In office; 1967–1972
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson; Edward Heath
Preceded by	Sir Francis Rundall
Succeeded by	Sir Frederick Warner
British Ambassador to Austria
	In office; 1965–1967
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Sir Malcolm Siborne Henderson
Succeeded by	Sir Anthony Rumbold, 10th Baronet
British Ambassador to the Philippines
	In office; 1959–1963
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Sir George Clutton
Succeeded by	Sir John Addis
Personal details
Born	16 May 1912
Died	10 February 1990 (aged 77)
Education	Shrewsbury School

Sir John Arthur Pilcher GCMG (16 May 1912 – 10 February 1990) was a British diplomat, capping a long career with a posting as Her Majesty's ambassador to the Philippines (1959–1963), Austria (1965–1967) and Japan (1967–1972).

Career

Educated at Shrewsbury, Pilcher's entered the consular service after passing an open examination in 1935.^[1]

His career in the Foreign Service was marked by appointment as one of His Majesty's Vice-Consuls in China in 1940.^[2]

Pilcher was the British ambassador to the Philippines 1959–63, and to Austria 1965–67^[3] when the Queen conferred with the honour of Knight Commander in the Order of St Michael and St George.^[4]

Pilcher ended his career as Her Majesty's ambassador in Tokyo from 1967^[5] through 1972,^[6] He was considered by some of his peers as "the last of the scholar-diplomats."^[7]

Although Pilcher was appropriately diplomatic in his professional duties, he was capable of extraordinary frankness in dispatches sent to Whitehall. While there is no doubt that Pilcher was sincere, his seeming inability to recognize an inherent double standard in his views is revealing about the attitude that many British and European scholars took towards non-Europeans in the early postwar decades.^[8] For instance, the substance of a declassified 1972 letter to the Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home was published in the Japan Times in 2003. In that dispatch, Pilcher expressed views which are no less controversial today than when he wrote them.^[9]

His granddaughter Marissa Pilcher married to German Prince Maximilian zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg.

Honours

Order of St Michael and St George, Knight Grand Cross.^[10]

Notes

^ London Gazette: Issue No. 34217, p. 27 (8 November 1935).
^ London Gazette: Issue No. 34960, p. 3 (4 October 1940).
^ London Gazette: Issue No. 43654, p. 3 (18 May 1965).
^ London Gazette: Issue No. 43854, p. 4 (31 December 1965).
^ London Gazette: Issue No. 44478, p. 1 (18 December 1967).
^ British embassy in Japan: Ambassadors to Japan Archived 3 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
^ Cortazzi, Hugh. (2004). British Envoys in Japan, 1859-1972, publisher's blurb. Archived 7 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine
^ Curtin, J. Sean. "Former British Ambassador Thought Japanese Lacked a Moral Code," Japanese Institute of Global Communications. 9 January 2003.
^ "British envoy painted Japanese as narrow-minded egoists," Japan Times. 1 January 2003; "Japanese lack moral code: British ambassador," Japan Policy & Politics. 6 January 2003.
^ Peerage: Sir John Arthur Pilcher, ID #200163

References

Cortazzi, Hugh. (2004). British Envoys in Japan,1859-1972. London: Global Oriental.
____________. (2001). Japan Experiences: Fifty Years, One Hundred Views : Post-war Japan Through British Eyes 1945-2000. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-903350-04-1
Daniels, Gordon. Summary of microfilmed records: Part 7: Complete Files for 1969-1971 (PRO Class FCO 21/555-593 et seq.). Foreign Office Files for Japan and the Far East; Series Two: British Foreign Office Files for Post-war Japan, 1952-1980 (Public Record Office Classes FO 371 and FCO 21). Marlborough, Wiltshire: Adam Matthew Publications.
____________. Summary of Microfilmed records: Part 6: Complete Files for 1966-1968 (PRO Classes FO 371/187076-187142 & FCO 21/238-299). Foreign Office Files for Japan and the Far East; Series Two: British Foreign Office Files for Post-War Japan, 1952-1980 (Public Record Office Classes FO 371 and FCO 21)
PILCHER, Sir John (Arthur), Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, Retrieved 24 July 2012

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Sir George Clutton	British Ambassador to the Philippines 1959–1963	Succeeded by Sir John Addis
Preceded by Sir Malcolm Siborne Henderson	British Ambassador to Austria 1965–1967	Succeeded by Sir Anthony Rumbold, 10th Baronet
Preceded by Sir Francis Rundall	British Ambassador to Japan 1967–1972	Succeeded by Sir Frederick Warner