Craig was born in
Liverpool and educated at
Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. He then won an
exhibition to
The Queen's College, Oxford. He gained first class in Classics
Honour Moderations after his first year, then served in the army 1943–44 but left due to illness and returned to Oxford where he gained a first class degree in Arabic and Persian. He lectured in Arabic at
Durham University 1948–55, taking a year off to study at
Cairo University 1950–51. In 1955 he took leave from Durham to be senior lecturer at the
Middle East Centre for Arab Studies. He joined the
Foreign Office and was
Political Agent in the
Trucial States 1961–64. His successor as Political Agent,
Glencairn Balfour Paul, called him "the best Arabist in the [diplomatic] service." He was posted to Beirut 1964–67 and to Jeddah 1967–70, then took a year's sabbatical fellowship at
St Antony's College, Oxford, 1970–71. His next post was head of the Near East and North Africa Department at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1971–75. During this time, in November 1974 a British Airways aircraft was hijacked and flown to Tunis, where Craig was sent to deal with the crisis. The hijackers murdered a German banker but the remaining passengers and crew were released. Craig was deputy
High Commissioner at Kuala Lumpur 1975–76, ambassador to Syria 1976–79 and ambassador to Saudi Arabia 1979–84 during which he had to rebuild relations with the Saudis who were offended by the 1980
ATV drama-documentary
Death of a Princess. He then retired from the Diplomatic Service and was visiting professor in Arabic and lecturer at
Pembroke College, Oxford, 1985–1991. Among other activities he was Director General of the Middle East Association 1985–93 and President 1993–2011. He also served as a director of
Middle East International. Craig was appointed
CMG in the
1975 New Year Honours, knighted
KCMG in the
1981 New Year Honours and promoted to GCMG in the
1984 New Year Honours. After his retirement he was made an Officer of the
Order of St John. ==Publications==