Papers of John Cecil Cloake

Scope and Content

The papers consist of two sets of manuscripts and notes:

  • Draft Manuscript and Notes towards a book on the Azerbaijan Crisis
  • Draft Manuscript and Notes for a book on Old Tehran made by John Cecil Cloake and Margaret Cloake during his posting to Tehran with allied Correspondence.

Administrative / Biographical History

John Cecil Cloake was born in Wimbledon, London, England on 2 December, 1924, the son of Dr Cecil Stedman Cloake and Maude Osborne Newling. He was educated at King's College School and served in the Royal Engineers in India and Japan during and after World War II. After the war he completed his education, studying History at Cambridge University.

In 1948, Cloake joined the Foreign Office and served as:

  • 3rd Secretary, Baghdad, 1949
  • 3rd then 2nd Secretary, Saigon, 1951
  • Geneva Conference, 1954
  • FO, 1954
  • Private Secretary to Permanent Under-Secretary, 1956
  • Private Secretary to Parliamentary Under-Secretary, 1957
  • 1st Secretary, 1957
  • Consul (Commercial), New York, 1958
  • 1st Secretary, Moscow, 1962
  • FO, 1963
  • Diplomatic Service Administration Office, 1965
  • (Counsellor, 1966)
  • (Head of Accommodation Department, 1967)
  • Counsellor (Commercial), Tehran, 1968–72
  • Fellow, Centre for International Studies, LSE, 1972–73
  • Head of Trade Relations and Exports Department, FCO, 1973–76
  • Ambassador to Bulgaria, 1976–80

While in Saigon, in 1952, he met Margaret ("Molli") Morris (1929–2008) from Washington, D.C., who was serving there in the United States Diplomatic Service, and they were married in Cambridge four years later in 1956. She died in 2008.

Cloake was made a CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George) in 1977 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1988.

Cloake and his wife moved to Richmond, London in 1962 and wrote several books on the history of that area.

He died on 9th July, 2014.

Arrangement

Two Series were created covering the material:

  • JCC/1 Notes towards a book on the Azerbaijan Crisis
  • JCC/1/1 Draft Manuscript: Azerbaijan Crisis
  • JCC/1/2 INotes from Iran State Department Papers
  • JCC/1/3 Notes from Iran: Secondary Sources
  • JCC/1/4 Notes on Iran Foreign Office Records 1942-1943
  • JCC/1/5 Notes on Iran Foreign Office Records 1945
  • JCC/1/6 Additional Notes
  • JCC/2 Notes for Old Tehran
  • JCC/2/1 Draft manuscript of Old Tehran
  • JCC/2/2 Allied Correspondence regarding Old Tehran

Access Information

Open. Please contact the archivist using the email address given here. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID

Acquisition Information

The material was donated to the RAS on 3rd June 2016 by John Newling Cloake, the son of John Cecil Cloake

Archivist's Note

The descriptions were created by Nancy Charley, Archivist at the Royal Asiatic Society, in 2016

Conditions Governing Use

Digital photography (without flash) for research purposes may be permitted upon completion of a copyright declaration form, and with respect to current UK copyright law.

Related Material

The RAS also holds photographic material belonging to John Cecil Cloake. There are seven albums related to his time serving in Tehran, 1968-1972, one album covering Afghanistan, a further album covering Iraq and Brazil and a few loose photographs. These are catalogued as Photo 69/1-10 and can be found on the RAS Library Catalogue .