This is a list of Permanent Under-Secretaries in the British

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign ...

(and its predecessors) since 1790. Not to be confused with

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is a vacant junior position in the British government, subordinate to both the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and since 1945 also to the Minister of State for Foreign Affair ...

Permanent Under-Secretaries at the Foreign Office, 1790 to present

These are the Permanent Secretaries or senior civil servants at the Foreign Office. *February 1790: George Aust *October 1795: George Hammond (resigned 1806) *March 1807: George Hammond *October 1809:

William Richard Hamilton William Richard Hamilton, FRS, (9 September 1777 – 11 July 1859) was a British antiquarian, traveller and diplomat. Early life Hamilton was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London in 1777. He was the son of Rev. Anthony Hamilton, Archdeac ...

*July 1817:

Joseph Planta Joseph Planta GCH (2 July 1787 – 5 April 1847) was a British diplomat and politician of Romansh-Swiss descent. He was the MP for Hastings, England. Planta's father, also named Joseph Planta (1744–1827), moved from Switzerland to England a ...

*April 1827:

John Backhouse Sir John Backhouse (KOB) (1584 – 9 October 1649) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1625 to 1629. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Backhouse was the son of Samuel Backhouse o ...

*1842: Henry Unwin Addington *1854: Edmund Hammond (later Lord Hammond) *1873: Lord Tenterden *1882: Sir

Julian Pauncefote Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote (13 September 1828 – 24 May 1902), known as Sir Julian Pauncefote between 1874 and 1899, was a British barrister, judge and diplomat. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between ...

(later Lord Pauncefote) *1889: Sir Philip Currie (later Lord Currie) *1894: Sir Thomas Sanderson (later Lord Sanderson) *1906: Sir

Charles Hardinge Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, (20 June 1858 – 2 August 1944) was a British diplomat and statesman who served as Viceroy and Governor-General of India from 1910 to 1916. Background and education Hardinge was the second ...

(later Lord Hardinge of Penshurst) *1910: Sir Arthur Nicolson (later Lord Carnock) *1916: Lord Hardinge of Penshurst *1920: Sir

Eyre Crowe Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe (30 July 1864 – 28 April 1925) was a British diplomat, an expert on Germany in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He is best known for his vehement warning, in 1907, that Germany's expansionism was mo ...

(died in office) *1925: Sir William Tyrrell (later Lord Tyrrell) *1928: Sir

Ronald Lindsay Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay (3 May 1877 – 21 August 1945) was a British civil servant and diplomat. He was Ambassador to Turkey from 1925 to 1926 and to Germany from 1926 to 1928, Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1928 to ...

*1930: Sir Robert Vansittart (later Lord Vansittart) *1938: Sir

Alexander Cadogan Sir Alexander Montagu George Cadogan (25 November 1884 – 9 July 1968) was a British diplomat and civil servant. He was Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1938 to 1946. His long tenure of the Permanent Secretary's office makes ...

*1946: Sir

Orme Sargent Sir Harold Orme Garton Sargent (31 October 1884 – 23 October 1962) was a British diplomat and civil servant. Early life and career Sargent was born Giles Orme Sargent; his parents changed his name after they registered his birth. He was educat ...

(jointly with Sir

William Strang William Strang (13 February 1859 – 12 April 1921) was a Scottish painter and printmaker, notable for illustrating the works of Bunyan, Coleridge and Kipling. Early life Strang was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, a builder, an ...

, Head of the German Section 1947–1949) *1949: Sir

(jointly with the Heads of the German Section: Sir

Ivone Kirkpatrick Sir Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick, (3 February 1897 – 25 May 1964) was a British diplomat who served as the British High Commissioner in Germany after World War II, and as the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the hig ...

1949–1950, Sir D. Gainer 1950–1951) (later Lord Strang) *1953: Sir

*1957: Sir Frederick Hoyer Millar (later Lord Inchyra) *1962: Sir Harold Caccia (later Lord Caccia) *1965: Sir Paul Gore-Booth (also Head of the Diplomatic Service from 1968; later Lord Gore-Booth) *1969: Sir Denis Greenhill (later Lord Greenhill of Harrow) *1973: Sir

Thomas Brimelow Thomas Brimelow, Baron Brimelow (25 October 1915 – 2 August 1995, London, United Kingdom) was a British diplomat. He served as Ambassador to Poland (1966–69), Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Foreign Office (1973-75), and Member ...

(later Lord Brimelow) *1975: Sir

Michael Palliser Sir Arthur Michael Palliser (9 April 1922 – 19 June 2012) was the vice chairman of the Salzburg Seminar's Board of Directors and a senior British diplomat. Life Born in Reigate, Surrey, the son of Admiral Sir Arthur Palliser, he received h ...

*1982: Sir

Antony Acland Sir Antony Arthur Acland (12 March 1930 – 8 September 2021) was a British diplomat and a provost of Eton College. Early life Antony Acland was the second son of Bridget Susan (Barnett) and Brigadier Peter Acland. He was educated at Eton ...

*1986: Sir Patrick Wright (later Lord Wright of Richmond) *1991: Sir

David Gillmore David Howe Gillmore, Baron Gillmore of Thamesfield, GCMG,(16 August 1934 – 20 March 1999) was a British diplomat. He retired in 1994 after a distinguished diplomatic career in which he was a leading light in John Major's extrication of the ...

(later Lord Gillmore of Thamesfield) *1994: Sir

John Coles John Coles may refer to: *John David Coles, film and television director *John Coles (historian) (1930–2020), British archaeologist * John Coles (diplomat) (born 1937), former British High Commissioner to Australia * John Coles (businessman) (183 ...

*1997: Sir John Kerr (later Lord Kerr of Kinlochard) *2002: Sir Michael Jay (later Lord Jay of Ewelme) *2006: Sir

Peter Ricketts Peter Forbes Ricketts, Baron Ricketts, (born 30 September 1952) is a retired British senior diplomat and a life peer. He has sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords since 2016. Ricketts served as chair of the Joint Intelligence Committe ...

(later Lord Ricketts) *2010: Sir Simon Fraser *2015: Sir Simon McDonald (later Lord McDonald of Salford) *2020: Sir Philip Barton

Permanent Under-Secretaries at the Foreign Office, 1790 to present

See also