1921
Born 1 September, Kingston, Kent; parents: John Alexander Park and Doreen Gwyneth Park (née Cresswell-George)

1922
Returned to Africa with her parents, first to Nyasaland and then to Tanganyika where the family settled

1932
Left Tanganyika to live with great-aunts in London

1933-1939
Rosa Bassett School, Streatham, London

1939-1943
Somerville College, Oxford (Modern Languages, 2.1)

1943-1946
Special Operations Executive (SOE), on secondment from First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)

1943
RF section SOE

1944
(January) Jedburghs, Milton Hall, head of coding instruction

1944
(April) RF section, coding instructor

1944
()August) Jedburghs, Massingham, briefing officer

1945
Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF), Virginia Water, Surrey, head of coding

1946
FANY

1947
Field Intelligence Agency Technical - British Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (FIAT-BIOS) on continuing secondment from FANY

1948-79
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)

  - 1948-49
    General Service in administrative role

  - 1949-50
    Staff officer to Kenneth Cohen, Chief Controller/Europe

  - 1950
    Stay behind officer, Germany, Austria, Switzerland

  - 1951
    Transferred to intelligence branch (IB) on Operation GLADIO in France

  - 1951-52
    Joint Services School of Linguistics/Newnham College, Cambridge,
    Certificate in Russian

  - 1952
    Immersive Russian language tuition, Paris

  - 1952-54
    Press attaché to head of UKDEL NATO, Fontainebleau

  - 1954
    General Tradecraft course, London and Hampshire

  - 1954-56
    2nd secretary, head of station and deep cover officer, Moscow (H/MOSCOW)

  - 1957-58
    Production officer (P Officer), West Germany stations

  - 1959
    Sub-Saharan Africa desk, London

  - 1959-61
    1st secretary and consul, Léopoldville (H/LÉOPOLDVILLE)

  - 1961
    Appointed OBE

  - 1961-64
    Production officer (P Officer), Central and West Africa stations

  - 1964-67
    Consul and head of station, Lusaka (H/LUSAKA)

  - 1967-69
    Far East Controllerate

  - 1969-70
    Consul-general and head of station Hanoi (H/HANOI)

  - 1971
    Appointed CMG

  - 1971
    Sabbatical as Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent

  - 1972
    (March/April/May) charge d’affaires ad interim Ulaanbaatar,
    Mongolia, (H/ULAANBAATAR)

  - 1972-75
    Head of UK Africa stations, London (H/UKC)

  - 1975
    Controller/Western Hemisphere (C/WH)

  - 1979
    Retired from SIS

1980-89
Principal of Somerville College, Oxford

1982-87
Governor of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

1983-89
Member, British Library Board

1984-90
Chairman, Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Legal Aid

1985-89
Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Oxford

1989-90
Director, Zoo Development Trust

1989-94
Chairman, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England

1990-2010
Baroness Park of Monmouth, of Broadway in the County of Hereford and Worcester

1991-92
Trustee, Royal Armouries Development Trust

1994-96
Member, Forum UK

1994-2010
President, Society for the Promotion of the Training of Women

2003
Patron, Action Congo

2010
Died 24 March, Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.


Member, Royal Asiatic Society
Member, Special Forces Club
Member, Margaret Thatcher Foundation
Governor, Ditchley Foundation
Trustee/Patron, Great Britain-Sasakawa Foundation
Trustee, Jardine Educational Trust
Trustee, Lucy Faithfull Travel Scholarship Fund
Fellow Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA)
Fellow of Chatham House (RIIA)