Sir Michael O'Donel Bjarne Alexander, GCMG (19 June 1936 – 1 June 2002) was a British diplomat.
Alexander was born at 1a Barnes Close, Winchester, the eldest son of Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (1909–1974), chess grandmaster and cryptographer, and his wife, Enid Constance Crichton, née Neate (1900–1982). He spent his childhood in Ireland and was later educated at St Paul's School, London, and King's College, Cambridge from 1957 to 1960. He fenced...
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Sir Michael O'Donel Bjarne Alexander, GCMG (19 June 1936 – 1 June 2002) was a British diplomat.
Alexander was born at 1a Barnes Close, Winchester, the eldest son of Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (1909–1974), chess grandmaster and cryptographer, and his wife, Enid Constance Crichton, née Neate (1900–1982). He spent his childhood in Ireland and was later educated at St Paul's School, London, and King's College, Cambridge from 1957 to 1960. He fenced for the university, and won a silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics, as well as a gold medal in the American championship in 1961. Between school and university, he did his national service with the Royal Navy, where he learnt Russian and sent him to Kiel in Germany, to listen to Russian military communications. It was in Germany that he met Traute Anna Ida, a bookseller's secretary and daughter of Ernst Krohn, a tailor. They married in London on 18 March 1960, and had two sons and a daughter.
After graduating from Cambridge and passing...
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