A FORMER Hillhead High pupil who became the first Jewish British Ambassador has had a room in the Foreign Office’s London HQ named in his memory.

Having come from a working class background and never attending university, Sir Horace Phillips defied the odds to enter a service which, in the 1960s, was dominated by Oxbridge graduates and members of the aristocracy.

His proud family, including daughter Maureen, recently attended a special event to celebrate the opening of the Phillips Room.

Glasgow Times: Sir Horace and his wife, Lady Idina in 1977Sir Horace and his wife, Lady Idina in 1977 (Image: Newsquest)

Maureen, 75, said: “The grandeur of the Foreign Office headquarters in the heart of Whitehall is in such contrast to my father's modest upbringing in Glasgow. He could never have imagined being honoured in this way."

“He would have been delighted to see how the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is nowadays brimful of people from all walks of life. He was a trailblazer and such a strong believer that if you aim high, as he did, you can achieve your ambition irrespective of your origins.”

Glasgow Times: Sir Horace PhillipsSir Horace Phillips (Image: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Sir Horace, born in 1917, was the grandson of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe. His father died when Horace was a teenager, leaving his mother almost penniless with seven children to feed.

He attended services at Garnethill Synagogue and was a leading member of a Jewish Boy Scout troop. He left school at 18 and worked for the Inland Revenue as a clerical officer. During World War Two, he discovered he had a remarkable talent for learning languages. Throughout his diplomatic service mastered Japanese, Arabic, Persian, French, German, Italian, Indonesian and Swahili.

Between 1940 and 1947, he served with the Doresetshire and Punjab 1st Regiment in Iraq, India, Burma, Ceylon and Malaya.

He was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 1968 but the Saudi government refused, after discovering he was Jewish. He went on to become High Commissioner to Tanzania and Ambassador to Turkey. 

Maureen said her father was “unlike other British Ambassadors of those times."

She added: “He was perfectly happy to ditch first class flights, instead choosing to drive himself to better discover the territory. I remember on one trip together from Ankara to Istanbul in his Ford Capri, we had to keep stopping at bakeries for hot bread to warm our hands because the heating was broken.

“And even when he travelled to Buckingham Palace to be knighted, he didn’t order a car but asked me to drop him and my mother off in his Mini.”