A WELL-REGARDED High Commissioner in India, Sir David Goodall played a crucial role in the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.
A classical scholar who gained a first at Trinity, Oxford and a devout Roman Catholic, he proved an ideal person to start the negotiations that would lead to the Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Peace Process.
Arthur David Saunders Goodall was brought up in Yorkshire, where he attended Ampleforth College and discovered a passion for art.
After Oxford he served for a year as subaltern in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry before entering the Foreign Office in 1956.
He was soon marked out as one to watch and by the 1960s took over the German desk in the Foreign Office at the height of the Cold War. From there he moved steadily upwards, in 1979 being appointed as Minister to Bonn (the then West German capital) until promotions propelled him to become Deputy Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office from 1982 to 1987.
He acted as secretary of the Ministerial Committee for Overseas Affairs and was especially valued for his work on the Anglo-Irish Agreement, his Irish ancestry and Catholic heritage complemented by his diplomatic skills and pure common sense. His subsequent four years in India were rewarded with the GCMG, the highest honour for members of the Diplomatic Service.
Although his artistic ability had come to light when he was still at school, it was not until Sir David read Painting As A Pastime by Winston Churchill that he took it up himself. He painted in India, travelling through most of its states and wherever he went thereafter.
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From 1995 he was chairman of Leonard Cheshire Disability, which helps disabled people, and in accordance with his abiding interest in all things Irish, he also became chairman of Anglo-Irish Encounter and the British-Irish Association. In 1996 he was the Visiting Professor at the Institute of Irish Studies, part of Liverpool University, and he was on the Council of Durham University.
He wrote and illustrated two books: Remembering India and Ryedale Pilgrimage and spent his retirement in Ampleforth.
In 1962 he married Morwenna Peecock. She and their three children survive him.
