It had only just been built and the Skinners lived in a little staging post that, Jane recalled, looked like a Foreign Legion fort. In 1962 Charles and his new wife, Jane, found themselves Her Majesty's representatives in the new Brazilian capital of Brasilia. Skinner was interviewed in Spanish and was therefore amused that his first posting was to Brazil, where he had to learn Portuguese. At the time, the Foreign Office was looking both for people with commercial experience and for Latin America experts in particular. After his mother died, he felt able to go abroad again and applied to the Foreign Office. Upon the death of his father, he returned to London to work for Shell International Petroleum.

He learned fluent Spanish and fell in love with South America, travelling widely in Peru. He first went to South America when he took a job with the Bank of London and South America, and then became an internal auditor for the Cerro de Pasco Mining Corporation in the high Andes. After Eton and military service, Charles went to New College, Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics. His father, Robert, worked for the Admiralty but retired early, when he and his wife devoted themselves to public service in Bedfordshire. Only one street survived of the rest, only a few roofs were left protruding above the mud.Ĭharles Robert Skinner was born in London in 1928. The town of Huaraz was almost obliterated by mudslides, with the loss of some 15,000 lives.

Within weeks of starting, he was to oversee Oxfam's relief operations in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Peru on 31 May that year, killing 70,000 people. In 1970 he resigned his position as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Lima to become Oxfam's Field Director in the Andes. Charles Robert Skinner, diplomat and charity worker: born London 16 July 1928 staff, Shell International Petroleum 1955-61 First Secretary, British Embassy, Brasilia 1962-66 First Secretary, British Embassy, Lima, 1967-69 Field Director, West and South America, Oxfam 1970-72, Area Co-ordinator for Latin America 1972-74, Deputy Overseas Director 1972-79, 1980-90, Representative and Field Director, India, Nepal and Kashmir 1979-80, Area Co-ordinator for Asia 1983-88 married 1962 Jane Page (one son, two daughters) died Islip, Oxfordshire 13 December 2005.Ĭharles Skinner gave up a promising career as a diplomat to become a worker for the British relief and development charity Oxfam.

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