In May 2009, Sir Richard Dalton commented on the request for the repatriation of the Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of carrying out the December 1988 Lockerbie bombing and who was in a Scottish jail suffering from terminal cancer: "A decision by the Scottish authorities to keep Megrahi would not seriously derail Britain's relations with Libya, but there would be consequences. Among them is the possibility that a successful appeal by Megrahi would plunge Britain, the United States and Libya once again into the fraught environment of an international investigation to find new Lockerbie suspects", Sir Richard said. Family Richard John Dalton married Elizabeth Mary Keays on 1 January 1972. Following the death of his father, Major-General John Dalton, in 1981, he moved with his wife and four children—two sons (1978 and 1982) and two daughters (1973 and 1979)—into the Dalton family home at Hauxwell Hall in lower Wensleydale. References Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Living people British political scientists British foreign policy writers 1948 births Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Iran Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Libya Members of HM Diplomatic Service Chatham House people 20th-century British diplomats