Here is an extract of the obituary for Paul Ignatieff, the UNICEF Representative in Cambodia at the time of the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge.

Paul Ignatieff, who was born in Canada, has died aged 87 at his home in Dumfriesshire. The descendant of government servants in Imperial Russia, Paul continued his family’s long commitment to public service in a highly successful 30-year career with UNICEF.

Threatened with execution during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the Ignatiev family fled to England before starting a new life in Canada in 1925.
Vladimir, Paul’s father, became a pioneering agronomist and soil specialist. In 1934, he married Florence Hargreaves, an internationally recognised biochemist and nutritionist. Vladimir was instrumental, under the leadership of the Scottish scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lord Boyd Orr, in establishing the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

In 1967, Paul joined Canada’s National Committee for UNICEF as Executive Director. He served in this capacity for five years, raising funds and promoting the work of the organisation; he had found his niche.

Paul's first international assignment, in 1973, was a baptism of fire as UNICEF’s Representative to war-torn Cambodia. He embraced the challenge, building a young dynamic team and running a relief operation that benefited many women and children. Living with his family in the middle of a horrific conflict was not ideal. The family was evacuated while Paul remained in the country hoping to be able to continue the work of UNICEF with its new regime. As things fell apart, Paul was able to gather foreigners and many threatened Cambodians to shelter in the French Embassy compound to which he had been given access. Eventually the Cambodians were forced to give themselves up to the Khmer Rouge, the foreigners were loaded into trucks and driven to the Thai border. The country became a virtual concentration camp, as depicted in the chilling film The Killing Fields, written by Paul’s fellow prisoner Sydney Schanberg.
The horrors of this experience shaped Paul and he remained a staunch advocate for peace and conflict resolution throughout his life.

The full obituary was published in The Scotsman dated 28th March 2024.

It was Paul Ignatieff that recruited me in to the then United Nations Joint Office in Sydney and ignited my ongoing interests and involvements in Cambodia.

OML

His grandson Michael is a well-known author (in Canada)... And, like most well-known Canadians, to the manor born or with a professor mom or dad, like Margaret Atwood, lol... (Can't be a winner in that thick hick country otherwise... Yawn...)