Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch

In 1979, MacLehose raised the question of Britain's 99-year lease of the New Territories (an area that encompasses all territories north of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula), with Deng Xiaoping. The talks, although inconclusive at the time, eventually involved top British Government officials and paved the way for the handover of Hong Kong in its entirety, including those parts ceded to the UK in perpetuity, to the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997.

After his governorship ended in 1982, MacLehose was made a life peer as Baron MacLehose of Beoch, of Maybole in the District of Kyle and Carrick and of Victoria in Hong Kong, later that year. In 1983, MacLehose was made a Knight of the Thistle. In 1992 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) by the University of Hong Kong. When he was 80 years old, he, Sir Edward Heath and Lord Howe, attended the official swearing-in ceremony of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Chief Executive on 1 July 1997, which was boycotted by the British Government.

Between this time and 1971, MacLehose would serve in the British Embassy in Beijing and as Ambassador to Denmark.

MacLehose became Governor of Hong Kong in November 1971, holding this position until May 1982, making him Hong Kong's longest-serving governor; his 10 years and 6 months in office exceeding Sir Alexander Grantham's previous record by one month. He was widely and affectionately known as "Jock the Sock", in reference both to his Scottish heritage and to his name, 'hose' being a word meaning sock or stocking.

His career almost stalled when he left a copy of a confidential telegram in a bank in 1967. The document contained correspondences' between then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and US President Lyndon Johnson concerning the Vietnam War. Another British diplomat was able to recover the telegram before its contents could be leaked. Upon being informed of the potential security breach, Wilson and Brown decided against allowing an investigation into MacLehose error out of appreciation of his abilities and record. This decision likely saved his career,and allowed MacLehose to proceed to his next post as British Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam in 1967.

MacLehose was principal private secretary to Foreign Secretary George Brown in the late 1960s.

Crawford Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, KT, GBE, KCMG, KCVO, DL (Chinese: 麥理浩; 16 October 1917 – 27 May 2000), was a British politician, diplomat and the 25th Governor of Hong Kong, from 1971 to 1982. He was the longest-serving governor of the colony, with four successive terms in office.

Murray MacLehose was born in Glasgow, Scotland in October 1917 as the second child of Hamish Alexander MacLehose and Margaret Bruce Black. He attended Rugby School in 1931 and Balliol College, Oxford.