X-Nico

11 unusual facts about Foreign and Commonwealth Office


Baron Strang

It was created in 1954 for the prominent diplomat Sir William Strang, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1949 to 1953.

Cabinet Secretary

The first means that the Cabinet Secretary is responsible for all the civil servants of the various departments within government (except the Foreign Office), chairing the Permanent Secretaries Management Group (PSMG) which is the principal governing body of the civil service.

Charlotte Atkins

After the 2001 general election Atkins was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

David Nyheim

After several years of focused work on the Niger Delta, which included support to the later President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Nyheim returned to the North Caucasus in 2005, where worked with Anton Ivanov and others on a Strategic Reconstruction and Development Assessment for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (United Kingdom).

Downing Street

The houses on the west side of the street were demolished in the nineteenth century to make way for government offices, now occupied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Integration with Britain Party

Although the struggle on parity was successful and Gibraltar work force got the parity in July 1978, the party's main aim of closer links with the UK was dealt a severe blow when in 1975, the British Foreign Office Minister, Roy Hattersley, stated that integration was not acceptable to the British Government.

Julian Ridsdale

From 1958-60 he was PPS to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Laurence O'Keeffe

He joined the Civil Service in 1953, initially in HM Customs and Excise, but transferred to the Foreign Service in 1962 and was posted to Bangkok 1962–65; the South East Asia desk at the Foreign Office 1965–68; Head of Chancery at Athens 1968–72; Commercial Counsellor at Jakarta 1972–75; and head of the Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department, FCO, 1975–76.

Philip Irwin

After retiring from the Royal Navy, Irwin joined the Foreign Office as a Vice-Consel in the General Consular Service.

Robert Hannigan

Robert Peter Hannigan CMG (born 1965) is a senior British civil servant currently serving as the Director-General of Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The UK Government's Knowledge Network Programme

FCO Ecpolnet (one of four global FCO 'Nets') – a secure global community for the Foreign Office linking economic policy analysts in embassies around the world to share economic policy briefing and supporting knowledge;


Adrian Johns

On 9 June 2009, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced that Johns would succeed Sir Robert Fulton as Governor of Gibraltar later that year.

Alicia Castro

On 30 April 2012 she publicly confronted Foreign Secretary William Hague on the matter at the launch of the Foreign Office's annual human rights report.

Carlos Mendoza Davis

He entered graduate studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, United States and received a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1995 with a research paper entitled The violation of human rights in third world countries as a reason for the imposition of economic sanctions. In 2002, he won a Chevening Scholarship from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, provided by the British Council.

Congo Free State propaganda war

Influenced by Mary Kingsley, an English traveller and writer who showed sympathy for African peoples and respect for different cultures, he became critical of the Foreign Office for not supporting African decolonisation movements.

Cypriot Annan Plan referendums, 2004

The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, "We will respect the choice which Greek Cypriots have expressed today. But I hope that they will continue to reflect on whether this choice is the right one for them."

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Lord Green works jointly between the department and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Edward Everett

A new British administration, friendlier to the United States than the previous one, sent Lord Ashburton to Washington to negotiate directly with Webster, and Everett's role was reduced to acquiring documents from British records, and pressing the American case to the Foreign Office.

Graham Boyce

Since leaving the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Sir Graham has worked for a number of companies in and Advosory capacity including serving on the advisory board of Lehman Brothers Middle East, Merchant International Group and Invensys.

Hattersley Memorandum

In September 1975, Roy Hattersley (a Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) had visited Gibraltar and made it clear that the integration with the United Kingdom was not an option for Gibraltar.

The Memorandum by Her Majesty's Government on the Report of the Constitution Committee, or the Hattersley Memorandum for short (by Roy Hattersley, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom), dated 26 June 1976, was the answer of the Labour British Government to proposed constitutional changes in Gibraltar ruling out the possibility of integration of Gibraltar with the United Kingdom.

Horse Guards Road

To the west of the road is St. James's Park and to the east are various government buildings, including the Horse Guards building, the Old Admiralty Buildings, the Cabinet Office, Downing Street (the entrance to which is blocked by an iron gate), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and HM Treasury.

Law of Anguilla

Other areas of law, such as international law, are essentially regulated externally through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London by Order in Council.

Mark Lennox-Boyd

He served as a government whip and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Orfordness transmitting station

The site and buildings were taken over in 1975 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Communications Engineering Department (still better known by its previous name, the Diplomatic Wireless Service), who installed a 50-kW medium-wave broadcast transmitter.

Sutton Grammar School for Boys

Robin Gorham – former British Deputy High Commissioner, Lusaka and former Head of Protocol Department and Assistant Marshal of Diplomatic Corps, Foreign and Commonwealth Office