Carrington, Lord (1919-2018), was secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance of Western nations, from 1984 until 1988. He had earlier been the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary from 1979 to 1982. He resigned from this post after the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. As foreign secretary, Carrington had negotiated the independence of Zimbabwe. In 1992, Carrington acted as a mediator in conflicts after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Peter Alexander Rupert Carington was born on June 6, 1919, in London, the son of the fifth Baron Carrington. An ancestor had adopted the surname “Carington” (with one “r”) in the 1800’s. Peter Carington became the sixth Baron Carrington upon his father’s death in 1938.
Carrington was educated at Eton and at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. He held positions in every Conservative government from 1959 until 1982. He was chairman of the party from 1972 to 1974. In 1983, he became a companion of honour, one of the United Kingdom’s highest honors, given by the queen to men and women who have done “conspicuous” national service. Lord Carrington died on July 9, 2018.
