15 Facts About Cedric Thornberry

Cedric Henry Reid Thornberry was a Northern Irish international lawyer and Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations, for which he worked for 17 years.

Cedric Thornberry spent most of his United Nations service in international peace keeping in Cyprus, the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia and Somalia.

Cedric Thornberry studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and graduated first with a BA and then with an LLB and became a barrister in 1959.

Cedric Thornberry taught at Cambridge University from 1958, and at the London School of Economics from 1960.

Cedric Thornberry was a foreign correspondent for The Guardian in Greece and was a practising human rights lawyer.

Cedric Thornberry was one of the founders of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1968.

Cedric Thornberry was the father of Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales, Emily Thornberry who has described how he abandoned his family and left them in poverty.

Cedric Thornberry stood for the Labour Party in Guildford in 1966.

Cedric Thornberry joined the United Nations in 1978 and became involved in the internationally supervised settlement of the Namibia question.

Cedric Thornberry became Chief of staff of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group.

Cedric Thornberry served as the Senior Political and Legal Adviser to UNFICYP and to UNTSO, and was Director of Administration and Management at UN headquarters for four years.

Cedric Thornberry was Director of UNPROFOR Civil Affairs at the beginning of the Mission in February 1992, and shortly afterwards became Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations when he was made Deputy Chief of Mission of the 50,000-person UN operation in ex-Yugoslavia as well as senior negotiator with all of the Balkan parties.

Cedric Thornberry remained head of UNPROFOR's Civil Affairs until early 1994.

Cedric Thornberry was a consultant to NATO in the exercises it conducts with the Partnership for Peace countries and a visiting professor at King's College in London.

Cedric Thornberry published several books and contributed many articles for publication in international journals, including:.