Sir D'Arcy Patrick Reilly, GCMG (17 March 1909 – 6 October 1999) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to the USSR and France. He held several senior posts and was called "the perfect mandarin."
D'Arcy Patrick Reilly was born at Ooty, India, the only son of Sir (Henry) D'Arcy Cornelius Reilly, ICS (1876–1948), Chief Justice of Mysore. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he was awarded BA in 1932. He won a Laming Travelling Fellowship at the Queen's College and was a Fellow of All Souls from 1932 to 1939, the same year as Isaiah Berlin. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1933.
Reilly was 3rd Secretary in Teheran from 1935 to 1938 and then had a brief period in the UK Delegation to the League of Nations Assembly. From 1939 to 1942, he worked at the Ministry of Economic Warfare and was awarded the OBE in 1942. In 1942 he was seconded to take up the post of Private Secretary to 'C', Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies, the Chief of the Secret Service. He became First Secretary under Harold Macmillan at Algiers in 1943, and under Duff Cooper at Paris in 1944. He became First Secretary at Athens in 1945 and then Councillor of Athens from 1947 to 1948 during the height of the Greek Civil War. In 1949 he was at the Imperial Defence College, and was appointed CMG.

Return to Patrick Reilly Autograph Profile