John Carter (ambassador)


Sir John Carter was a Guyanese politician, lawyer and diplomat.

Career

From 1939 to 1945, during the second world war, he studied and taught law in London and his legal expertise became invaluable on numerous discrimination cases to the League of Coloured Peoples. In 1944, he became involved in a case of an African-American soldier serving in Britain who had been condemned to death for rape by a US military court. In the end, the sentence was commuted.
In 1945 he returned to Guyana and established a law practice. To his mandatories belonged Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte. In 1948 he became the youngest member of the colony's legislative council.
In 1952, he founded the United Democratic Party; in 1957 Forbes Burnham convinced him to become the first chairman of the People's National Congress.
In 1962 he became a Queens Counsel; he was knighted four years later. On 28 June 1966, he was appointed the first ambassador to Washington, D. C. where he was accredited from till and was concurrently accredited to the United Nations and was high commissioner in Ottawa. From 1970 to 1976 he was high commissioner in London, and was concurrently accredited in Paris, Bonn, Moscow and Belgrade. While he was high commissioner in London, the government of Forbes Burnham nationalised a sugar company from Booker Group. From to 1979 he was ambassador in Beijing with accreditation in Tokyo and Pyongyang. From 1981 till his retirement in 1983 he was High commissioner in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 1983 he settled with his with his second wife, Sara Lou, in Washington, D.C..