ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion of the British Diplomatic Service’s far from flexible attitudes towards social distinctions in this era and it demonstrates that before, during and after the Second War World the Service retained fixed ideas about the preferred social pedigree of its members. It examines families in this context and demonstrates the way in which families of lesser social standing could undergo ‘the process of acculturation’ identified by Cromwell, by adopting the values and attitudes of established diplomatic families. The 1943 report was dedicated to reforming these kinds of distinctions and the attitudes that upheld them within the Foreign Service. The Dixon children were very confident in their roles within the extended family; they clearly found the adult members accessible and respectful of the opinions they were encouraged to have. The Curtis Committee viewed children ‘as beings who could be damaged by the lack of individualised care and affection’.
