John Wendell Holmes

Who was John Wendell Holmes?

John Wendell Holmes, OC FRSC was a Canadian diplomat and academic.

Born in London, Ontario, Holmes attended the University of Western Ontario and received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto. From 1933 to 1938, he was a master of English at Pickering College. From 1938 to 1940, he attended the University of London. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1943 as a temporary wartime assistant.

From 1947 to 1948, he was the Canadian Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to the Soviet Union. In 1950, he was appointed Acting Permanent Delegate to the United Nations. He became Assistant Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in 1953 where he remained until his retirement in 1960. From 1960 to 1973, Holmes was president of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, a non-partisan, non-profit, and non-governmental organization for the discussion and analysis of international affairs.

Holmes was among hundreds of federal civil servants who were targeted in an RCMP homosexual witch hunt that intensified in 1959 and continued through the 1960s, destroying lives, careers and families.