AS part of the Queen's 90th birthday honours a south Cumbrian man has been invested into a chivalric order for his service to foreign affairs.

At a ceremony at Buckingham Palace Professor Colin Warbrick, formerly of Barrow, was invested as a companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.

The order dates back almost 200 years and its former members include heads of state and high-ranking dignitaries.

Mr Warbrick, 73, who now lives in Durham, said: "It was both interesting and quite exciting. It was Prince Charles who did the investiture, it was the last ceremony for the people honoured last year, it was a very grand setting. There were eight or nine people like me, and there were 60 or 70 people getting other honours. It was quite different from what I anticipated."

Mr Warbrick was surprised he was honoured, believing he has lived quite an ordinary life.

He said: "I was an international law teacher all my life. I was someone that just did his job. When the letter came I was surprised, there was a wash of pleasure when I got it."

On the day, Mr Warbrick was able to exchange a few words with Prince Charles, who was bestowing honours to their recipients.

Mr Warbrick said: "He asked me if I despaired about international law these days, but I said, 'happily I'm retired now.'"

Spending all his life as an academic, Mr Warbrick came into contact with government officials simply due to his field of expertise.

He said: "I think they must nominate you, I have had quite close relations with the foreign office and retired legal advisers in the foreign office. Probably that had something to do with it.

"If you're in international law you you just end up working with the Foreign Office. We do the academic part of what they do in practice. Some of the things that I'm interested in are of some interest to the foreign office."
One period of great interest during his long career came during the late 1990s, and the arrest of the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, in London.

Mr Warbrick wrote about the case, and his conclusions were look on favourably by the government.

He said: "For instance with Pinochet, I was very much taken with the Pinochet litigation. The Foreign Office agreed with what I'd written."

During his career he held posts at Durham University, and in Birmingham. It was a life far removed from growing up in Barrow.

Mr Warbrick enrolled at Barrow Grammar School in 1955, and went on to study at Cambridge University in 1965.

He said: "I went to Corpus Christi to do law. We were called 'commoners' back then."

Now retired from teaching, Mr Warbrick comes back to Barrow to see his brother, and enjoying the landscape of his hometown.

He said: "I still regard myself as a Barrovian. Steve is still there, I come back from time to time. I like walking on Walney."

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