His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (HMDS) is the

diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to ...

of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, dealing with

foreign affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

and representing British interests overseas, as opposed to the

Home Civil Service His Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as His Majesty's Civil Service, the Home Civil Service, or colloquially as the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, whic ...

, which deals with domestic affairs. It employs around 14,000 people, roughly one-third of whom are crown servants working directly for the

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 ...

, either in London or abroad. The remaining two thirds of staff are employed locally by one of nearly 270 British diplomatic missions abroad (such as embassies, consulates or high commissions)."Working for FCO", Foreign and Commonwealth Office website, retrieved 28/12/2016
/ref> The Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is also the Head of the Diplomatic Service. The Foreign Service, which originally provided

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

s to staff the Foreign Office, was once a separate service, but it amalgamated with the Diplomatic Service in 1918. The Diplomatic Service also absorbed the

Colonial Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

in the late 1960s. Women were not allowed to join the Diplomatic Service until 1946. Until 1973, they were required to leave when they married. The first female ambassador to be appointed was

Barbara Salt Dame Barbara Salt, (30 September 1904 – 28 December 1975) was a British diplomat. Salt was born in Oroville, California to Reginald Salt, an English banker and his wife, Maud, who returned to England not long after her birth. She was the gr ...

, to Israel in 1962, but ill-health prevented her from taking up the post.

Eleanor Emery Eleanor Emery, CMG (23 December 1918 – 22 June 2007) was High Commissioner to Botswana from 1973 to 1977: the first British woman to reach that rank. She was born in Glasgow but educated at Western Canada High School; and the University of ...

was British High Commissioner to Botswana from 1973 to 1977, corresponding to an ambassador but within the Commonwealth. The first woman to serve as an ambassador as such was

Anne Warburton Dame Anne Warburton (8 June 1927 – 4 June 2015) was a British diplomat who was the first female British ambassador. She served as British Ambassador to Denmark from 1976 to 1983 and British Permanent Representative to the United Nations in ...

, appointed to Denmark in 1976."The women who serve in danger zones", BBC News, 9 July 2014
/ref>

Footnotes

{{Reflist

External links

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office website

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to ...

Diplomacy

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Diplomatic security

See also

Footnotes

External links