Andrew Christopher Stuart was born in 1928, the son of Mary Summerhayes and the Right Reverend Cyril Edgar Stuart (1892-1982) who was Bishop of Uganda from 1934 to 1952. Stuart was educated at Bryanston School and Clare College, Cambridge, and served in the Royal Navy for two years.

In 1953 Stuart joined the Colonial Administrative Service and was posted to Uganda as a cadet. He became district officer in Bugisu until 1961, Judicial Advisor to the Buganda Government until 1964 and then Under Secretary and Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism. He left Uganda at the end of 1964, retiring from the Colonial Service and, after being called to the Bar, joined HM Diplomatic Service in 1965. Following postings to Helsinki and at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London he was Counsellor in Jakarta, 1975-1978, and served as the last British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides from 1978 until 1980 when it became independent as the Republic of Vanuatu. Stuart's final diplomatic posting was as Ambassador to Finland, 1980 to 1983. He died in 2014.