James Alfred Davidson

He retired from the Diplomatic Service in 1981. He continued to take up several other positions including as a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics he decided to do a pupillage at the Admiralty Bar. He was a member of the inquiry into the sinking of the MS European Gateway.

Davidson wrote a book on the region in 1979: Indo-China: Signposts in the Storm. He was appointed OBE in 1971.

After the India-Pakistan war, he become deputy high commissioner in East Pakistan, which was soon become Bangladesh. In this position, Davidson took part in negotiations on Indira Gandhi's visit to Bangladesh in March 1972.

He joined the Commonwealth Relations Office in 1960. His first assignment was as first secretary in the newly independent Trinidad. In 1969, he was posted to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he witnessed the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk. He continued to serve until the Khmer Rouge fully took over the country.

In 1951 he was posted as naval liaison officer to the Chinese Nationalist Government.

In 1943 he was appointed first lieutenant of the frigate HMS Calder. A year later, in February 1944, at the age of just 21, Davidson took temporary command of the ship.

His first posting, as a midshipman, was to the HMS Hawkins, but in 1942 he was transferred to the destroyer HMS Inconstant.

Davidson was born in 1922 and educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and Christ's Hospital, then at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

James Alfred Davidson, OBE (22 March 1921 – May 2004) was a British naval commander and diplomat. After serving during the Second World War, he joined the Commonwealth Relations Office where he held several posts in Cambodia, Brunei, Bangladesh and the British Virgin Islands.