Peter Rams-botham, who served as Britain's ambassador to Washington during the Watergate era, died Friday, his wife said. He was 90. Zaida Ramsbotham said her husband died of pneumonia at their family home in the village of Ovington in southern England. She said he had been ailing for a long time.
The Eton and Oxford-educated son of the Viscount of Soulbury, Ramsbotham served in the British Intelligence Corps during World War II, ferreting out German spies and former Nazis. He joined Britain's Foreign Office in 1948, serving in Berlin and at the United Nations in New York before being promoted to High Commissioner in Cyprus to 1969. Ramsbotham served as ambassador to Iran from 1971 to 1974 before moving on the United States.