Falle was educated at
Victoria College, Jersey. He served in the
Royal Navy 1937–48 and was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross "for gallantry in the face of overwhelming odds whilst serving in during her last action in the Java Sea on 1st March, 1942".
Encounter, a destroyer, had taken part in the
Second Battle of the Java Sea, suffered major damage and was scuttled by her crew. They were subsequently rescued by the
Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer
Ikazuchi commanded by
Shunsaku Kudō. Falle spent the next three and a half years as a prisoner of war. Falle joined the
Foreign Service in 1948 and served at
Shiraz, Tehran, Beirut and Baghdad. He was
Consul-General at Gothenburg 1961–63, head of the
UN department at the
Foreign Office 1963–67 and accompanied
Lord Shackleton on a mission to
Aden in 1967. He was deputy
High Commissioner at Kuala Lumpur 1967–69,
ambassador to Kuwait 1969–70, High Commissioner to Singapore 1970–74, ambassador to Sweden 1974–77, and High Commissioner to Nigeria 1977–78. He then retired from the Diplomatic Service and joined the
European Commission, becoming EC delegate to Algeria 1979–82, then working as a consultant on development aid in Africa including evaluation of
EEC aid to
Zambia 1983–84, and Swedish aid to
Swaziland in 1986. Falle was appointed
CMG in the
Queen's Birthday Honours of 1964, knighted KCVO in 1972 and given the additional knighthood of KCMG in the
New Year Honours of 1979. The
King of Sweden made him a Commander Grand Cross of the
Order of the Polar Star in 1975. Falle sought out the location of the grave of
Shunsaku Kudō, to whom he held enormous gratitude for rescuing him during the
Second Battle of the Java Sea, and visited there on 7 December 2008. Kudo was such a humble man that his family came to know of his deed for the first time when Falle visited them. ==Publications==