4 INTELLECTUAL COOPERATION IN WAR-TIME AND PLANS ... 415and Cultural Organisation, this being a matter of a new draft constitu-
tion for the nascent educational and cultural organisation, and a resolu-
tion stipulating that UNESCO would be located in the French capital.^269
That the London Conference proved to be a success can be, in some
measure, credited to Zimmern who worked tirelessly throughout the
conference, serving as an advisor to the British Ministry of Education and
as the conference’s secretary general. It is thus not surprising that it was
Zimmern who was elected executive secretary of UNESCO’s Preparatory
Commission at the first meeting of its executive committee on December
3, 1945.^270
Against the background of Zimmern’s election as executive secretary
both Zimmern and his wife, Lady (Lucie) Zimmern, Cowell later recalled,
‘looked forward with natural anticipation’ to Zimmern’s subsequent
appointment as UNESCO’s first director-general which they saw ‘as the
crown and reward for a life-times effort in the cause to which UNESCO
was dedicated.’^271 However, not long after the conclusion of the London
Conference, Zimmern fell ill and had to undergo surgery. People
expressed concern that Zimmern would not be able to bear the burden
of the work involved in preparing for UNESCO’s first general confer-
ence. Ostensibly for this reason and on the initiative of Wilkinson and
her permanent secretary John Maud, Zimmern was replaced by Huxley
who assumed the post of executive secretary on March 1, 1946 and it was
Huxley who would go on to become UNESCO’s first director-general.^272
Upon recovering from surgery, Zimmern returned to the Preparatory
Commission in the hope of resuming his role as executive secretary.
(^269) Johnson, ‘The Origin of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization,’ 444. The Conference also issued a Final Act that recorded its work. For
Johnson’s role, see Wanner, ‘The United States and UNESCO: Beginnings (1945) and
New Beginnings (2005),’ 6n.
(^270) D. J. Markwell, ‘Sir Alfred Zimmern Revisited: Fifty Years On,’ Review of
International Studies 12, no. 4 (1986): 279–92, 281; Cowell, ‘Planning the Organisation
of UNESCO, 1942–1946: A Personal Record,’ 227; and Archives of UNESCO, Chronology
of UNESCO 1945– 1987 (Paris: UNESCO, December 1987), 3, LAD.85/W5/4, UA.
(^271) Cowell, ‘Planning the Organisation of UNESCO, 1942–1946: A Personal Record,’ 62.
Note that Zimmern had been knighted in 1931.
(^272) Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics, 85, and Cowell, ‘Planning the Organisation of
UNESCO, 1942–1946: A Personal Record,’ 229. See also ‘Nomination à l’U.N.E.S.C.O.:
Dr. Julian Huxley,’ Coopération Intellectuelle International, nos. 1–2 (1946): 1.