Roger William Jackling was born on 10 May 1913 in
Hythe, Kent. He was educated at
Felsted School and
London University (Diploma in Public Administration). He joined the
Diplomatic Service in 1939 as acting vice-consul in the British consulate in
New York City. He was posted as Commercial Secretary at
Quito,
Ecuador, in 1942 but returned to the US in 1943, this time to the embassy at
Washington, D.C. where he remained until 1947 when he was transferred to the
Foreign Office in London. In 1950 he served in the
Cabinet secretariat for the government of Prime Minister
Clement Attlee. In 1951 he was transferred to
The Hague as commercial counsellor, then in 1953 to
West Germany as economic and financial adviser to the UK High Commissioner at
Bonn. In May 1955 the Federal Republic of Germany was declared "fully sovereign", the High Commissioner
Sir Frederick Hoyer Millar became the
Ambassador, and Jackling was promoted to Economic
Minister. Jackling was posted as Counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington 1957–59, then to the
Foreign Office as Assistant
Under-Secretary 1959–63, then as deputy permanent UK representative to the
United Nations 1963–67, with the personal rank of Ambassador from 1965 when he acted as
President of the Security Council. After serving as Deputy Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office 1967–68 he returned to Bonn as Ambassador 1968–72, during which he conducted lengthy negotiations with the other
allied powers, resulting in the
Four Power Agreement on Berlin in September 1971. He led the UK delegation to the
United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) from its inception in 1973 until he retired in 1976. ==Family==