Sir ‘Nicko’ Henderson dies aged 89

One of Britain's most colourful diplomats, Sir Nicholas 'Nicko' Henderson, who became a daily feature of American and British television as ambassador to Washington during the Falklands War, has died at 89. With his rumpled suits, uncombed hair and effortless charm, Henderson was regarded by friends and admirers as the archetypal British diplomat though his critics deemed him a loose cannon.

In each of his postings around the world, from Warsaw via Bonn and Paris to Washington, Henderson’s eccentricity was legendary. While in Bonn, he famously turned up at a ball he had organised dressed up to look like his huge pet Dalmatian, Zorba. And when he retired from his post in Paris, aged 60, thinking his career was over, his parting shots at the Foreign Office - which he accused of hampering Britain’s economic progress - caused outrage.

Henderson was brought out of retirement by Margaret Thatcher to be our man in Washington. His close relationship with President Ronald Reagan was perhaps the single most important factor in getting the US onside during the military operation to retake the Falkland Islands following the Argentine invasion in 1982. That and his tour of the TV studios as he put Britain's case to the American pundits and public alike.

Thatcher said she had trusted the situation to him because he "always had ideas" and later claimed that, without him, Britain would not have recovered the islands.

Henderson's wife, Mary, was the journalist daughter of a Greek doctor with a practice in London, whom he met in the 1940s. Her cooking became famous among visiting politicians and dignitaries in each of the capitals to which her husband was posted. Mary’s first impressions of 'Nicko', as he was always known, said it all: he was, she wrote, "very tall and thin, with an easy, natural, untidy chic".
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