JOHN WATERFIELD’s career of public service culminated in a key role in setting up the Northern Ireland Office, of which he was the principal establishment and finance officer from 1973 to 1979. This made him responsible for all aspects of the administration of a new government department, including the recruitment of staff, while shuttling continually between offices in Whitehall and Belfast.

John Percival Waterfield was born in 1921, the son of Sir Percival Waterfield, later the first Civil Service Commissioner. They were direct descendants of the astronomer William Herschel. Waterfield was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford; Charterhouse, where he was a scholar; and Christ Church, Oxford (again as a scholar).

He served throughout the war with The King’s Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles), commanding a platoon of Brengun carriers and machineguns at El Alamein and across the Western Desert to Tunisia. Here he led a notable patrol at the Wadi Akarit, which contributed substantially to the success of the Indian Division’s night attack on April 6, 1943.

Following the victory in North Africa, Waterfield moved with his battalion to Italy for the long slog north, during which he became captain and adjutant before the severe battles for the Gothic Line. He commanded the Headquarters Company for the final campaign in northeastern Italy and the advance into Austria after the German surrender. He was demobilised in 1945, having been mentioned in dispatches.

In the summer of 1946 he entered the Diplomatic Service and joined the Northern Department of the Foreign Office. Posts in Moscow and Tokyo, Santiago as First Secretary and New York as Commercial Consul followed. In 1964 he was appointed Ambassador to the Mali Republic and, simultaneously, to the Republic of Guinea. In 1966 he was promoted to Head of Chancery at the High Commission in Delhi.

A further post as head of the Western Organisations Department of the Foreign Office and four years as managing director of the British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers Association preceded his appointment to form the new Northern Ireland Office, the continued existence of which is a tribute to his administrative skill. He retired in 1980.

Waterfield was a good example of the “generalist”, seeking advice from recognised experts, as opposed to the “specialist” in a particular country or subject. Never lacking in candour, he was not one to bow to seniority. He would always puncture pomposity and was sceptical of politicians. He was uncompromising on matters of principle and through honesty probably sacrificed prospects of promotion to the top of the Diplomatic Service, which his first-class brain and administrative ability appeared to merit.

His rather dry curriculum vitae may give the impression that Waterfield was a stereotyped example of a civil servant. This was by no means the case. He was a very unusual man. He enjoyed a robust and varied personal life as a bon viveur in an almost Edwardian style. He would have been much at home at pre-1914 house parties, especially if they had a cricketing or fishing theme.

His acquaintance was widespread, his friends a selected few. To the latter he was ever hospitable, whether at his London club or at Somerton, where his small garden, meticulously manicured, provided a further keen interest. He was also an enthusiastic and ingenious fly-fisherman, delighting in his pursuit of salmon in Ireland and of trout nearer home. He was never happier than when sharing picnics with his guests on the banks of the Nadder.

His life was further enhanced by his talent as a watercolourist. His landscapes of foreign lands and the waterside, sometimes transferred to Christmas cards and postcards, gave real pleasure to his family and friends.

Waterfield was married in 1950 to Margaret Lee Thomas, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. Lee died in 1990, and in 1992 he married Tilla Hevesi Vahanian, a psychotherapist and agony aunt in New York. She died, after a short illness, in 1999, a blow from which he never fully recovered.

John Waterfield, soldier and diplomat, was born on October 5, 1921. He died on December 21, 2002, aged 81.