Francis Campbell

Francis Martin Campbell (b. 20 April 1970, Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland) has been the UK's Ambassador to the Holy See since 2005.

A native of Newry, he was educated at St. Colman's College there. He attended Queens University Belfast and attended postgraduate studies at the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, where he considered the priesthood. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania on a Thouron Award Fellowship. He joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1997, aged 27.

Campbell's early diplomatic career focused on Europe with postings to the European Enlargement Unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and secondment to the European Commission, as part of its Delegation to the United Nations in New York.

From 1999-2003 he worked at 10 Downing Street, appointed first as Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister (1999-2001) and then Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (2001-2003). From 2003-2005, he was First Secretary at the British Embassy in Rome and, subsequently, on sabbatical, Senior Policy Director with Amnesty International in London.

He is the first Roman Catholic to hold the position since the Reformation and the first British Ambassador to be appointed by open competition.

ee also

* British Ambassadors to the Holy See