Graham, born in Calcutta, British India, the only son of
Sir Reginald Graham, 3rd Baronet, was at school at
Eton College. He served in the
Grenadier Guards from 1944 to 1947, receiving a commission as a second lieutenant on 27 July 1945, barely over a month before the end of the
Second World War. Following his military service, he then went with a scholarship to
Trinity College, Cambridge 1948–50. On leaving Cambridge he joined the
Diplomatic Service and studied at the
Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies before being posted to
Bahrain in 1951,
Kuwait in 1952 and
Amman in 1953. He was Assistant Private Secretary to the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1954–57 and then served at
Belgrade 1957–60,
Benghazi 1960–61, the Foreign Office 1961–66 and
Kuwait 1966–69. Graham was
Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 1969–72, serving
Michael Stewart and
Sir Alec Douglas-Home. He was then posted as Counsellor (later
Minister) and Head of Chancery at
Washington 1972–74;
Ambassador to Iraq 1974–77; deputy
Under-Secretary at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) 1977–79;
Ambassador to Iran 1979–80; deputy Under-Secretary again 1980–82; and finally Ambassador and Permanent Representative to
NATO in
Brussels 1982–86. After retiring from the Diplomatic Service in 1986, Graham was Registrar of the
Order of St Michael and St George 1987–2001 and was also Director of the
Ditchley Foundation 1987–92. Graham died on 11 December 2019 at the age of 93. ==Honours==