Sir Nicholas Fenn has died.
The former diplomat had a distinguished career that included a spell as British ambassador to Dublin, High Commissioner in India and spokesman for the British Mission at the United Nations.
In recent years he has lived quietly in Maidstone Road in Marden with his wife Susan, although anger at Maidstone council’s housing plans for the village caused him to come out of retirement in 2014 to stand unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats at the borough’s elections.

He was educated at Peterhouse College in Cambridge, graduating with a double first in medieval history. He joined the diplomatic service and was appointed vice consul in Burma and was there during the 1962 military coup.

During a 37-year career, he worked closely with Lord Carrington during the Lancaster House talks on Rhodesia and was our man in China in the last days of Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

He retired in 1992, but later spent three years as chief executive of the Marie Curie Cancer Care.

In Marden he was a churchwarden at St Michael and All Angels Church and a supporter of the Safe Anaesthesia Worldwide charity, based in the village.

He was knighted in 1989.

He had two sons and a daughter. His son Robert followed him into the diplomatic service, serving as High Commissioner to Brunei. He is currently head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights and Democracy Department.

Sir Nicholas died on Sunday, September 18.