My friend and former colleague Richard Muir, who has died aged 81, was a diplomat central to the process of sustaining and nurturing the skein of relationships between Britain and the Sultanate of Oman.
These go back centuries but have grown exponentially since the renaissance of Oman from 1970 onwards under Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Richard and I were both British ambassadors in the capital, Muscat, in the 1980s and 90s, and both chairmen of the Anglo-Omani Society (now the British Omani Society) in the 2000s and 2010s. Clarity of mind, coupled with empathy and understanding, made Richard an influential if low-key player in an important set of relationships for both sides.
He was born in Muswell Hill, north London, to John Muir, manager of a paper manufacturing company, and Edna (nee Hodges), a librarian, and went to the Stationers’ Company’s school in Hornsey before studying French at Reading University.
In 1964 he joined the diplomatic service, and the following year went to the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (Mecas), the diplomatic service Arabic language school in Lebanon. While there he married, in 1966, Caroline Simpson, whom he had met when she was working at the Foreign Office in London.
Richard’s diplomatic career was unusually focused. He had five postings in the Middle East and north Africa, all bar one (Tunis) in the Arabian peninsula and the Gulf. His only other overseas posting was in Washington – covering the Middle East. For the last eight years of his career he was ambassador successively in Muscat (1994-99) and in Kuwait (1999-2002).
In Muscat he had frequent access to Sultan Qaboos, who awarded him the Order of Na’aman (first class) in 2013. He also had close friends among other senior Omanis, and was liked and respected for his active work to further develop relations with the new Oman.
As chairman of the Anglo-Omani Society between 2004 and 2012, Richard worked to make the ties between Oman and Britain more relevant to younger generations. He also acquired premises off Piccadilly in London, funded by the Omani government, to house the society’s activities and to provide an income stream to fund them. On this he worked closely with the Omani ambassador in London on the personal instructions of Sultan Qaboos.
After giving up the chairmanship, Richard remained active in Omani affairs until shortly before his death, particularly on building relationships between the Council of State (the upper house of the Council of Oman) in Muscat and the House of Lords.
Reflecting his interest in the wider Gulf area, he also worked for the Al Tajir Trust in the UAE and chaired the Sir William Luce Memorial Fund, which funds a fellowship at Durham University. He wrote, edited and sponsored work on Oman and the wider Gulf region to sit alongside the pioneering work of earlier generations of British officials working in the region.
He is survived by Caroline, their children, Catherine and Alastair, two granddaughters, Eliza and Florence, and his brother Andrew.
