Retired diplomat and high-flying civil servant Sir Donald Maitland has died aged 88.

The onetime press secretary to 1970s Prime Minister Edward Heath lived near Bradford-on-Avon, in Wiltshire, and was involved with a number of charities and groups in the Bath area.

The Scotsman ended his national public life as chairman of the now-defunct Health Education Authority and was involved in campaigning for greater awareness of Aids and HIV.

Sir Donald served in the Army in the Middle East, India and Burma, with his knowledge of Arabic leading him to the Foreign Office and a post in Iraq.

In 1956, he was appointed director of the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies near Beirut. Lebanon was already in the grip of sectarian feuding but when militia warned him to flee, Sir Donald initially refused to move.

Only when the firing started did he successfully evacuate staff and their families to the safety of the Lebanese capital.

In 1960, he became deputy head of news at the Foreign Office and spokesman for Mr Heath's team involved in the UK's doomed negotiations with the European Economic Community (EEC).

When French president Charles de Gaulle blocked Britain's entry, Sir Donald moved to Egypt but was moved back to London in 1965 to head the Foreign Office news operation.

Sir Donald, who was only 5ft 4in, had a tempestuous relationship with the new Labour government's Foreign Secretary, the volatile George Brown.

After one particular Brown eruption, he replied: "Secretary of State, you don't think somebody my size has got where I am by kow-towing to bully-boys, do you?"

Brown replaced him as the head of news but made him his principal private secretary, and charged him with re-opening the Common Market negotiations.

But before the EEC talks were completed, Sir Donald was appointed ambassador to Libya. His appointment coincided with the rise to power of Colonel Gaddafi and during one meeting with the eccentric leader, an unflappable Sir Donald nonchalantly pushed away a pistol pointed at his stomach.

When Mr Heath won the 1970 election, he made Sir Donald his press secretary. The cut and thrust of the lobby did not suit him entirely but he had the respect of the journalists and became one of Mr Heath's few close confidants.

In May 1973, Sir Donald moved to New York to be Britain's ambassador to the UN and was heavily involved in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.

Two years later, with Labour back in power, he was in Brussels as ambassador to the then EEC.

In 1979, he returned briefly to the Foreign Office, as deputy to the permanent under-secretary, only to be promoted by Margaret Thatcher in 1980 to permanent secretary at the Department of Energy.

After his retirement in 1982, he became a government director of Britoil, deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority and chairman of the Independent Commission on Worldwide Telecommunications Development.

In 1989, Sir Donald was appointed chairman of the HEA and was instrumental in putting momentum behind the move to curb tobacco sponsorship of televised events and in helping to formulate a media strategy in the fight against HIV and Aids.

A qualified pilot, he was made an OBE in 1960 and knighted in 1973.

His leaves his widow Jean, whom he married in 1950, a son and daughter, and two granddaughters.

He was closely involved with Bath's Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases and a long-serving president of the Bath Institute for Rheumatic Diseases.

Sir Donald was a onetime pro-chancellor at the University of Bath, and was given honorary degrees by it, the University of the West of England and Bath Spa University.

University of Bath vice-chancellor Professor Glynis Breakwell said: "We are all deeply saddened to learn of the death of Sir Donald Maitland. Sir Donald brought energy, enthusiasm and an immense wealth of experience to any activity he undertook on our behalf. His international expertise was an immense asset to us. His wise counsel was especially valuable to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences"