Diplomat and author

SIR Geoffrey Jackson, the distinguished diplomat who survived eight months imprisonment by terrorists in Uruguay while British Ambassador, has died at the age of 72.
Sir Geoffrey, a longstanding and much-valued contributor to the Catholic Herald, entered the Foreign Service in 1937 and served with distinction in the Middle East and Central and South America. He was Ambassador to Uruguay from 1969 to 1972 and between January and September 1971 was held captive by Tupamaros guerrillas in an "abominable damp dungeon" smelling of urine, excrement and dried blood.
After his release, Sir Geoffrey returned to London to serve as Deputy Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. In retirement he was chairman of the BBC Advisory Group on the Social Effects of Television, as well as publishing The Oven-Bird (1972), People's Prison (1973), Surviving the Long Night (1974) and Concorde Di plomacy (1981).
A devout Catholic, Sir Geoffrey developed a lifelong interest in the Church in South America, and particularly in the emergence of liberation theology. His Tupamaros captors were themselves supported by radical priests in Uruguay.
Geoffrey Holt Seymour Jackson was born in 1915 and educated at Bolton School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He married in 1939 and is survived by his wife and son. He was awarded the CMG in 1963 and the KCMG in 1971, and since his return to London had taken an active role in his local parish in Chelsea.