Sir Leslie FieldingKCMG (29 July 1932 – 4 March 2021) was a British diplomat.[1] In the Diplomatic Service, he spent time in the Foreign Office in London before serving as the European Commission Ambassador to Tokyo between 1978 and 1982. He was Director-General for external relations at the European Commission from 1982 to 1987.
Fielding spent seven years in the Foreign Office in London, as well as serving political assignments in overseas embassies in Tehran, Singapore, Phnom Penh and Paris.[2] He joined the European Commission in 1973 and was the Ambassador to Tokyo between 1978 and 1982. Upon his return from Japan, he became the Director-General for external relations at the European Commission. Fielding was knighted in 1988. He was a non-executive director of IBM (Europe) and a special adviser to Panasonic. Between 1987 and 1992 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex.[2]
Sir Leslie died on 4 March 2021 after a short illness.[3]
Publications
Europe as a global partner: the external relations of the European Community, University Association for Contemporary European Studies, London, 1989. ISBN0906384303
Before the Killing Fields: Witness to Cambodia and the Vietnam War, I.B.Tauris, 2007. ISBN1845114930
"Kindly call me God": the misadventures of 'Fielding of the FO', Eurocrat extraordinaire and vice-chancellor semipotentiary, Boermans Books, 2009. ISBN0956216714
Twilight over the Temples: the close of Cambodia's Belle Epoque, Boermans Books, 2011. ISBN0956216722
The Mistress of the Bees: a novel, Boermans Books, 2011. ISBN0956216730
Mentioned in despatches: Phnom Penh, Paris, Tokyo, Brussels: is diplomacy dead?, Boermans Books, 2012. ISBN0956216749
FIELDING, Sir Leslie, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013 (Subscription or UK public library membership required)
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