A HIGH-FLYING diplomat who was one of the first women to achieve the rank of ambassador has died aged 83.

Tessa Solesby came to York shortly after leaving a distinguished career in the Foreign Office which took her to Geneva, New York, South Africa and East Berlin.

When her globe-trotting exploits came to an end as she turned 60, she became Age Concern York's chief officer and pioneered a number of projects for elderly people.

Her job in York began when she started looking for something completely different to her Foreign Office role.

Between 1992 and 1997, Ms Solesby, who never married or had children, oversaw Age Concern York's response to the downgrading of the welfare state and focussed on care in the community.

She introduced York day centres, providing social contact for the elderly, and the befriender scheme, whereby volunteers visited the frail at home.

Born in London, Ms Solesby was seven when war broke out. Her father, Charles, was posted abroad with the Army and she and her mother moved first to Cardiff and then to the West Country.

When she retired in 1997, she told The Press her interest in foreign affairs had been sparked at the end of the Second World War when she travelled to Germany to see her father.

"During the war, you had the impression that the Germans were not really human beings," she said.

"I wouldn't have been at all surprised if Germans had two heads - or at least a forked tail.

"It was through these sort of experiences that the idea of working with foreigners and foreign policy came."

She was educated at Clifton High School, in Bristol, and read History at St Hugh's College at Oxford University, before joining the Foreign Office in 1956.

Her time in the male-dominated Foreign Office arena began in Whitehall working on the Baghdad Pact.

This was followed by her first foreign posting as a third secretary in the British Embassy in Manila.

The next stop was Lisbon, then from 1982 to 1986 she was appointed head of the Foreign Office's Central African Department in Zimbabwe.

Ms Solesby described the area as "a major political hot potato" when two British tourists were abducted and murdered by rebels.

At this time she also developed a completely new foreign policy for Mozambique, which seized on the regime's disillusionment with Soviet Union-style communism and would begin the process that would end the Civil War.

Staying in Africa, she moved south in 1986, becoming minster at the Pretoria embassy and finally reached the rank of ambassador when she was appointed the UK Representative to the Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva.

Tessa Solesby died on March 3 after a short illness.