Name John Guinness | ||
Sir John Ralph Sidney Guinness KCB (b. 23 December 1935), is British diplomat, civil servant and heritage champion.
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Education and family
Guinness was educated at Rugby School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
In 1967 he married Valerie Susan North of Rougham Hall, Norfolk. The couple has three children, a daughter Lucy and sons Rupert and Peter. She died in March 2014.
Career
Guinness had previously been a member of HM Diplomatic Service and had worked in the Cabinet Office (inter alia involved in the setting up of the National Heritage Memorial Fund) and had been Permanent Secretary of the Department of Energy from 1991 to 1992 and Chairman of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd from 1992 to 1993.
Heritage interests
He is a Trustee of the Royal Collection Trust and a Governor of Compton Verney.
Guinness was a member of the National Portrait Development Committee and has a deep interest in and knowledge of portraiture, particularly British historical portraits. He was also a member of the East Anglia Regional Committee of the National Trust from 1989 to 1994.
For many years he lived at the Tudor palace of East Barsham Manor, near Fakenham in Norfolk, selling it on his wife's death.