Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

This is a list of Permanent Under-Secretaries in the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (and its predecessors) since 1790.

Not to be confused with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

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
 * July 1817: Joseph Planta
 * April 1827: John Backhouse
 * 1842: Henry Unwin Addington
 * 1854: Edmund Hammond (later Lord Hammond)
 * 1873: Lord Tenterden
 * 1882: Sir Julian Pauncefote (later Lord Pauncefote)
 * 1889: Sir Philip Currie (later Lord Currie)
 * 1894: Sir Thomas Sanderson (later Lord Sanderson)
 * 1906: Sir Charles Hardinge (later Lord Hardinge of Penshurst)
 * 1910: Sir Arthur Nicolson (later Lord Carnock)
 * 1916: Lord Hardinge of Penshurst
 * 1920: Sir Eyre Crowe (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
 * 1946: Sir Orme Sargent (jointly with Sir William Strang, Head of the German Section 1947–1949)
 * 1949: Sir William Strang (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 (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 (later Lord Brimelow)
 * 1975: Sir Michael Palliser
 * 1982: Sir Antony Acland
 * 1986: Sir Patrick Wright (later Lord Wright of Richmond)
 * 1991: Sir David Gillmore (later Lord Gillmore of Thamesfield)
 * 1994: Sir John Coles
 * 1997: Sir John Kerr (later Lord Kerr of Kinlochard)
 * 2002: Sir Michael Jay (later Lord Jay of Ewelme)
 * 2006: Sir Peter Ricketts (later Lord Ricketts)
 * 2010: Sir Simon Fraser
 * 2015: Sir Simon McDonald (later Lord McDonald of Salford)
 * 2020: Sir Philip Barton