Terence Christopher O'Brien: 6 January 1936-30 December 2022.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: OBITUARIES

Terence Christopher O'Brien: 6 January 1936-30 December 2022.

The NZIIA suffered yet another blow with the passing, in the final days of the year, of Terence O'Brien, a former diplomat and commentator on international affairs.

Born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in the United Kingdom, Terence was the son of an RAF officer who was loaned to the RNZAF in 1940 to train pilots as chief air instructor, later transferred to the RNZAF and became a staff officer, and later still was appointed chief inspector of air accidents.

Although Terence spent the war years in New Zealand, he returned to the United Kingdom after the war. He was educated at Beaumont College, before reading history at Oxford's University College, graduating with a BA.

Returning to New Zealand, Terence joined the Department of External Affairs in 1959 (and three years later became a New Zealand citizen); he would later describe his induction to the diplomatic service as 'a prosaic down-to-earth slightly cock-eyed experience'. He spent a year on secondment to the External Assessments Bureau before moving into the department's Economic Division, from where he was posted as third secretary in the embassy in Bangkok. His main task was to liaise with the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. He also supervised New Zealand's aid programme in Thailand, but spent much time in South Vietnam as well supporting the New Zealand Surgical Team sent to Qui Nhon in 1963.

While in Bangkok, Terence married Canterbury University graduate Elizabeth Elworthy, who would be a big support to his diplomatic career; they would have four children.

Returning to Wellington in February 1965, Terence spent eighteen months in head office, once again in the Economic Division. In 1966 he was posted to London, where he served in the Economic Branch of the high commission. Responding to the United Kingdom's bid to join the European Economic Community dominated his time in London. This preoccupation continued when he was transferred to the embassy in Brussels in May 1968 as first secretary and deputy head of mission.

'Diplomatic life can be described as an exercise in interrupted destiny', Terence would observe late in his life. Back in Wellington in 1972, he found himself in the ministry's property section, which he later recalled as 'a high octane adventure' as the Norman Kirk-led Labour government sought to expand New Zealand's diplomatic presence. The most important task undertaken in his time with the...