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 Foreig ...

(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 Affai ...

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 George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

*October 1795: George Hammond (resigned 1806) *March 1807: George Hammond *October 1809: William Richard Hamilton *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 Englan ...

*April 1827: John Backhouse *1842: Henry Unwin Addington *1854: Edmund Hammond (later Lord Hammond) *1873:

Lord Tenterden Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden (7 October 1762 – 4 November 1832), was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1818 and 1832. Born in obscure circumstances to a barber and his wife ...

*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 *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 (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 John Bunyan, Bunyan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge and Rudyard Kipling, Kipling. Early life Strang was bor ...

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

(jointly with the Heads of the German Section: Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick 1949–1950, Sir D. Gainer 1950–1951) (later Lord Strang) *1953: Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick *1957: Sir Frederick Hoyer Millar (later Lord Inchyra) *1962: Sir

Harold Caccia Harold Anthony Caccia, Baron Caccia, (21 December 1905 Pachmarhi, India – 31 October 1990 Builth Wells, Wales) was a British diplomat. Caccia was the son of Major Anthony Mario Felix Caccia, Conservator of the Imperial Forest Service, and h ...

(later Lord Caccia) *1965: Sir

Paul Gore-Booth Paul Henry Gore-Booth, Baron Gore-Booth (3 February 1909 – 29 June 1984) was a British diplomat. He served with distinction in HM Diplomatic Service and in retirement held the following appointments: Director, Grindlays Bank, 1969–79, Un ...

(also Head of the Diplomatic Service from 1968; later Lord Gore-Booth) *1969: Sir

Denis Greenhill Denis Arthur Greenhill, Baron Greenhill of Harrow (7 November 1913 – 8 November 2000) was the British Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Head of the Diplomatic Service from 1969 to 1973; a respected expert on the US, E ...

(later Lord Greenhill of Harrow) *1973: Sir Thomas Brimelow (later Lord Brimelow) *1975: Sir Michael Palliser *1982: Sir Antony Acland *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) (18 ...

*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 Committ ...

(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