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Oliver Shewell Franks, Baron Franks GCMG KCB CBE ( 16 February , 1905 – 15 October , 1992 ) was an English public servant and Philosopher who has been described as 'one of the founders of the post-war world'. Oliver Franks was an Oxford academic, and Provost of Worcester College . He was a Moral Philosopher by training. Franks was involved in Britain's recovery after the Second World War . The then knighted, Sir Oliver was the British Ambassador To The United States Of America from 1948 to 1952 . As ambassador, he strengthened the '' Special Relationship '' between the two countries. He was given a life peerage on 10 May 1962 as Baron Franks, of Headington , in the County Of Oxford . Lord Franks was regularly called upon by the government of the day to chair important inquiries, and he is best known for his report in the aftermath of the Falklands War which ultimately exonerated Margaret Thatcher and her government from charges of having failed to heed warning signals of an Argentine invasion. In his book "The Diplomats", the historian Geoffrey Moorhouse tells how in December 1948 a reporter on a Washington DC radio station telephoned Ambassadors in the American capital and asked what each would like for Christmas. He recorded their replies for a special programme on the future of the human race. ‘Peace throughout the world,’ the French Ambassador demanded. ‘Freedom for all people enslaved by imperialism,’ his Soviet counterpart countered. And so it went on. Ambassadors asked for democracy for Christmas, an end to poverty, the banning of the atom bomb until at last the reporter called Sir Oliver Franks, the British Ambassador to the United States of America. ‘What do you want for Christmas, Sir Oliver?’ ‘It’s very kind of you to ask,’ a polite voice replied. ‘I’d quite like a box of crystallised fruit.’ REFERENCES
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