orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’
In the spring of 1956 Carless was finishing his posting in
Rio de Janeiro, before being transferred to Tehran, when
he received a cable from his good friend Eric Newby: ‘Can
you travel to Nuristan, June?’ He immediately sent back the
reply: ‘Of course’, and arriving back in London the two
men got together. After a week-end’s mountain climbing in
Wales, the two men set off for Afghanistan, where they
planned to climb Mir Samir, the still-unclimbed mountain
that Carless had recced four years previously. The tale of
their adventure was described in Newby’s classic account,
‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’, which he dedicated to
his travelling companion ‘To Hugh Carless of Her
Majesty’s Foreign Service, without whose determination, it
must be obvious to anyone who reads it, this journey could
never have been made.’ Later described as ‘the book that
virtually invented modern travel writing’, the work was
notable for its hilarious account of the disasters that befell
the inexperienced pair as they floundered and bumbled
their way across Afghanistan. After several tries, they
eventually managed to come within 700 feet of the summit
of Mir Samir, only to realise that they would have to spend
the night at the top and they had not brought their
sleeping bags with them. ‘I’m afraid we wouldn’t last out’,
Newby recalled Carless saying, before adding: ‘We can try
if you like.’ As they made their final descent, Newby
recorded: ‘The fact that we were roped together and had
one another’s lives in our hands, produced in me a feeling
of great affection for Hugh, this tiresome character who
had led me to such a spot.’ The expedition famously ended
with a chance encounter on the banks of the Upper
Panjshir river between the distinctly amateurish pair and the
very professional explorer Wilfred Thesiger. At the end of a
long evening swapping anecdotes, the three men prepared
to turn in for the night. Watching as they blew up their
airbeds to sleep on the hillside, Thesiger dryly remarked:
‘God, you must be a couple of pansies’, giving Newby’s
book its ending, and Carless his share of literary fame.
Carless resumed his diplomatic career as Oriental Secretary
in Tehran, a period that coincided with the Suez crisis,
before returning to London for a long spell at the Foreign
Office, two years of which were spent as private secretary to
Lord Dundee, Minister of State at the Foreign Office under
Harold Macmillan. Following postings to Budapest,
Luanda, and Bonn, Carless was appointed head of the Latin
America Department at the Foreign Office in 1973. In May
1976 President Geisel of Brazil was invited on a
The intrepid explorers: Carless (top) and Eric Newby
controversial state visit to Britain, which went ahead despite
fierce opposition from the Labour back-benches opposed
to the country’s military dictatorship. On the eve of the visit, the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, said to Carless: ‘Hugh, if we don’t get
one large contract out of the Brazilians you had better look for another job.’ Carless accompanied President Geisel to Buckingham Palace
and acted as interpreter. The visit resulted in British investment in an offshore oil development, the contract worth £300 million- and for
his involvement Carless was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (ahead of his seniority) and awarded the
Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross.
Offered the job of Ambassador to Peru in 1977, Carless instead opted to go to Buenos Aires as chargé d’affaires, the Argentine government
having dismissed the previous British ambassador. For the next three years he was involved in talks about the status of the Falkland Islands.
In 1982, after the end of the Falklands War, he was appointed Ambassador to Venezuela. The Venezuelans had been keen supporters of
Argentina during the War, and anti-British sentiment was high, leading to the cancellation of a number of lucrative contracts and
initiatives. For the next three years Carless pursued a ‘cultural diplomacy’, which ‘restored great warmth to our relations.’
Hugh Carless retired from the Diplomatic Service in 1985, and in retirement served as vice-chairman of the South Atlantic Council and
chairman of the British Committee, Argentine-British Conferences, as ‘an endeavour to re-establish constructive relations after the war.’
He died in London, 20.12.2011.
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