Michael Palliser

Who was Michael Palliser?

Sir Arthur Michael Palliser GCMG PC was the vice chairman of the Salzburg Seminar's Board of Directors and a senior British diplomat.

Born in Reigate, Surrey, the son of Admiral Sir Arthur Palliser, he received his education at Wellington and Merton College, Oxford. Appointed a Second Lieutenant 21 November 1942, he served in the Coldstream Guards during World War II. In 1947, he joined the British Diplomatic Service and held a number of appointments at home and abroad including Head of the Policy Planning Staff, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Minister at the British Embassy in Paris, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the European Communities, and, from 1975–1982, Permanent Under-Secretary of State and Head of the Diplomatic Service. From April to July 1982, during the Falklands campaign, he served as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office.

He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1983. That same year, he joined the board of the London investment bank Samuel Montagu & Co., a subsidiary of the Midland Bank, of which he became a deputy chairman.