 Fielding claimed that he was a kind of "unofficial under-secretary" of the Foreign Office, and quoted a 1979 letter from Harold Macmillan which said "You are one of those people whose services to our dear country are known only to a few".In his retirement he was appointed to the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's bodyguard in Scotland.McLean suffered from diabetes and septicaemia and died of heart failure in 1986.