John Shaw Rennie

Sir John Shaw Rennie Template:Postnominals (12 January 1917 – 12 August 2002)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was a British civil servant. He was Commissioner-General for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from 1971 to 1977.<ref name=Schiff>Benjamin N. Schiff, Refugees Unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), p. 293.</ref>

Biography

John Rennie was born in Glasgow and educated at Hillhead High School, Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1951 Rennie was appointed Britain's deputy colonial secretary for Mauritius.<ref name="WhoWasWho">Template:Who's Who</ref> He was the British Resident in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) from 1955 to 1962.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

From 1962 to 1968, he was Governor of Mauritius, overseeing Mauritius's transition to independence, including initiating discussions with Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the Mauritian premier, over the detachment of the Chagos Islands from Mauritian territory.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1968 to 1971, Rennie was UNRWA deputy commissioner-general under Laurence Michelmore, who persuaded the then UN secretary-general U Thant to appoint Rennie as his successor.<ref>Around the World Template:Webarchive, 3 October 2002</ref>

Rennie married Winifred McAlpine Robertson on 26 February 1946. The couple had one son.<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>

Rennie was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1955 New Year Honours,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1958 New Year Honours.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He was promoted to Knight Commander (KCMG) in 1962, while Governor-designate of Mauritius,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and then to Knight Grand Cross (GCMG) in 1968, while he was Governor General designate.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>