John Rennie, 85; Maintained U.N. Aid Program for Palestinians

Sir John Rennie, 85, who kept a U.N. aid program for Palestinian refugees going during conflict in the Middle East in the 1960s and ‘70s, died Aug. 12 of a heart condition at his London home.

Rennie joined the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in 1968 as deputy commissioner and later became commissioner general. The agency was established in 1950 to care for Palestinians made homeless by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, and educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities, Rennie entered the British Colonial Administrative Service, earning a knighthood when he was made governor of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in 1962. He oversaw Mauritius’ transition from a British colony to an independent nation during his six-year term. He remained for another six months as governor general and personal representative of Queen Elizabeth II.

He joined the refugee agency in Beirut at a time when it was financially troubled and struggling to deal with the large numbers of refugees created by the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Lebanon’s slide toward civil war. He steered the agency through the 1973 Middle East war and the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon.

Crippled by its location between warring factions in Beirut, the agency moved to Vienna in 1975. Rennie retired two years later.