But it must have come very hard and to all who knew him it was an extraordinary turn of events for a

But it must have come very hard and to all who knew him it was an extraordinary turn of events for a man with such an extraordinary record of successful leadership and wide experience.He was perhaps reminded of the frustration of his teenage years, when, as an outstanding treble at Salisbury Cathedral School, his voice, after breaking, failed to become the expected mature tenor depriving him of a possible choral scholarship. However, life as a chorister imbibed spiritual convictions which underpinned his life; and which were reflected in both his public and private worlds. His clear sense of service was shown in his support and membership of a wide range of organisations, including directing the Edington Music Festival 1965-70, and chairing the forum panel at the Royal Society of Arts where he was a leading Fellow from 1981 until his death.Characteristically Hinton emerged from the disappointment over the Millennium Commission with enormous dignity and took his talents to serve as the founder and President of the International Crisis Group, a London-based organisation working discreetly to intervene to prevent conflict. His work with ICG built on his already extensive global connections to implement the Dayton Agreements.

His integrity, honesty and fierce intellect commanded respect from the international statesmen and women who worked with him to build a safer, more peaceful world.Deborah, his devoted wife, was a constant source of support in a hectic and varied life; both she, and his daughter Josie, provided Nicholas with a haven of calm and tranquility amidst a schedule that proved to be too much. Nicholas was a man of big visions whose humour, sense of fun (particularly his colourful socks), and determination will be greatly missed.Nicholas John Hinton, charity administrator: born 15 March 1942; Assistant Director, Northorpe Hall Trust 1965-68; Assistant Director, National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders 1968-73, Director 1973-77; Director, National Council for Voluntary Organisations (formerly National Council of Social Service) 1977-84; CBE 1985; Director-General, Save the Children Fund 1985-94; President, International Crisis Group 1995-96; married 1971 Deborah Vivian (one daughter); died Split, Croatia 20 January 1997.. "J F T. Rodgers, Rare Books", the last catalogue read, and below, in small type, "Prop Sir Tobias Rodgers Bt". It was not vainglory but his self-quizzical sense of irony, the ridiculousness of life, that prompted this last extravagance. In the world of books he made a small but distinct mark, unforgettable to all who knew him. To them, he was always Toby, handsome, witty, tirelessly and endlessly reading, learned in all sorts of recondite ways, a giver of parties, helpless somehow and au fond unhelpable, but always irresistible.

He was born in 1940, the son of John Rodgers, a pillar of J. Walter Thompson and later Radio Luxembourg, one of the founders of History Today, Conservative MP for Sevenoaks from 1950 to 1979. Taking Churchill's advice always to live outside your constituency, the family settled at Groombridge, and there Toby was brought up. He got a scholarship to Eton, and another to Worcester College, Oxford. The Fellows' Library at Eton was then inaccessible to boys, so it was not until he got to Oxford, where Colonel C.H. Wilkinson and John Sparrow encouraged young bibliophiles, that a sense of the extra quality of reading old books in the original editions entered his life. By great ill-fortune he was struck down by meningitis just before he was due to take his finals, and being incapacitated before rather than during the examinations was unable even to get an aegrotat, which would have been at least a degree, as well as an agreeable anachronism.He had not fully recovered when he went out into the world to look for a living. After a very short time teaching English in a language school, he found his way to Bernard Quaritch, the great antiquarian booksellers, then in Grafton Street E.M.

Dring, the managing director, had not long before lost his close colleague and friend Oliver Howard, who had died untimely, and was looking immediately for a bright young man to help, but with an eye further ahead for a successor. Rodgers was not to know this nor the startling impact that his letter asking for a job, on Brooks's Club writing paper, made at Quaritch's. But Dring, who had a prescient sense for talent, was not misled by that or Rodgers's rather lackadaisical manner (he was still far from well) when he came for interview just before Christmas 1962.He began work at Quaritch early in the New Year, and, although it was hard for him to adjust to the old-fashioned discipline and venerable surroundings, he realised that he had found his metier. He learnt a great deal from Ted Dring and became immensely fond of him, as he of Rodgers.