23 Facts About Margaret Anstee

Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, was a British diplomat who served at the United Nations for over four decades, rising to the rank of an Under-Secretary-General in 1987.

Margaret Anstee was the first woman to hold this position.

Margaret Anstee was the only child of Edward Curtis Anstee, a printer, and Annie Adaliza, nee Mills, a domestic servant.

Margaret Anstee grew up in Chelmsford, Essex, in rural England.

Margaret Anstee was educated at Chelmsford County High School for Girls and Newnham College, Cambridge.

Margaret Anstee graduated with first class honours in French and Spanish in 1944, although it was another three years before the university began admitting women to full degree status.

Margaret Anstee went on to continue her studies at the University of London.

Margaret Anstee worked for a year as a university lecturer in Spanish at Queen's University, Belfast.

In 1948, Margaret Anstee joined the Foreign Office where she worked as a third secretary on the Latin American desk.

Margaret Anstee worked for Donald Maclean prior to his defection.

Margaret Anstee was engaged to Robin Mackworth-Young briefly but instead married Michael Rotherham Starkey on 5 May 1952.

Margaret Anstee accompanied her husband, a fellow British diplomat, to Singapore and Manila, Philippines.

Margaret Anstee served successively as Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme in eight countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Margaret Anstee was given major responsibilities in a number of disaster relief operations as well as special assignments for the Secretary-General to assist countries in dire economic distress.

Margaret Anstee worked on operational programmes of economic and social development in all regions of the world, mostly with the United Nations Development Programme.

Margaret Anstee wrote and lectured widely on the United Nations, particularly on issues related to development, peacekeeping, and UN reform.

Margaret Anstee chaired the Advisory Board of the Lessons Learned Unit of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and for some years actively took part in practical training in peacekeeping techniques for both military and civilian personnel, including simulation exercises, in the UK, Sweden, South America and the United States, South Africa and other African countries.

Anstee established the Margaret Anstee Developing World Fund to assist graduate students at Newnham College with their fieldwork.

Margaret Anstee died on 25 August 2016 in her home in Knill, Herefordshire at the age of 90.

Margaret Anstee left a legacy to found what is the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies, based at Newnham College.

In 1991, Margaret Anstee was made an Honorary Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge.

Margaret Anstee has been honoured by the governments of Austria, Bolivia and Morocco.

Margaret Anstee wrote a biography of John Brande Trend, one of her professors at Cambridge.