Sir Roy Denman was educated at Harrow Grammar School and later at St. John's College, Cambridge. After a period in the armed forces he joined the Board of Trade in 1948 and in 1957 after a spell as President of the Board of Trade's Office, he was posted to the British Embassy in Bonn for three years. In 1960 he went as part of the British delegation to GATT in Geneva for a year where he was concerned in particular with negotiations with the Community. He returned to London in 1961 and worked on tariff questions for the first negotiations for entry into the Common Market . In 1970, after three years as Under-Secretary at the Board of Trade, he was appointed as member of the UK negotiating team, which secured British entry to the EEC. In 1975 he joined the Cabinet Office as Head of the European Secretariat (Second Permanent Secretary). After this he joined the Commission as Director-General for External Affairs and in 1982 went to Washington as the as the European Community's Ambassador, where he remained until his retirement in 1989.