Tributes have been paid to Sir Douglas Wass, who served for nine years as the top official at HM Treasury, and who has died aged 93.
Wass, educated at St John's College Cambridge, joined the Treasury in 1946, and spent much of his career in the finance ministry.
He served as private secretary to two Conservative chancellors, Derek Heathcoat-Amory and Selwyn Lloyd, before briefly leaving Whitehall for a stint at the International Monetary Fund in Washington.
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He was promoted to the role of second permanent secretary in 1973, and went on to succeed Douglas Allen in the top Treasury role in 1974, serving as permanent secretary during the chancellorships of both Denis Healey and Geoffrey Howe.
He was at the helm of the Treasury when, faced with record inflation, the Labour government of Jim Callaghan was forced to apply to the IMF for a loan of almost $4bn, a move which prompted the implementation of deep public spending cuts and marked a watershed moment in British economic policymaking as well as accentuating ideological splits in the Labour party.
Former Treasury perm sec Sir Nicholas Macpherson said Wass, who is said to have served as the inspiration for the Yes, Minister mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby, was an "inspirational" Treasury leader who had been "instrumental in pulling the country back from the brink in 1976".
In the 1980s, Wass briefly served as joint head of the home civil service alongside cabinet secretary Robert Armstrong, after Margaret Thatcher abolished the dedicated civil service department. He retired from the civil service in 1983, and went on to chair financial services firm Nomura International.
In 1983, Wass presented a series of lectures for the BBC, dealing with, among other issues – a topic that has once again become a source of fierce debate in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
Addressing growing calls for senior officials in departments to be politically appointed, Wass defended the model of an impartial civil service, warning that filling top civil service roles with party appointments could lead to short-term policymaking and "the sort of administrative chaos which so often marks a new administration in the United States".
"I am convinced that if the opportunities to occupy the highest posts were denied them, the morale of our civil service would be impaired, and many who now think in terms of a public service career would turn elsewhere," he warned. "This would have adverse consequences for the whole administration: its effect would be felt at every level."
Wass described the relationship between a "permanent, politically neutral and meritocratic civil service" and their ministers as "crucial both to the successful working of our system of government and to its ability to respond to democratic pressures".
"Both sides must be sensitive to the dangers and pitfalls to which they are exposed," he added. "And above all, the country must be assured that the relationship is a healthy one."
Correction: An earlier version of this article erroneously referred to former chancellor Geoffrey Howe as Douglas. Apologies for the mistake, which was corrected on January 6