Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
This is a list of permanent under-secretaries in the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office since 1790.
The office holder chairs the Royal Visits Committee which provides advice to the Prime Minister on whether to invite Heads of State.
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
- March 1807: George Hammond
- October 1809: William Richard Hamilton
- July 1817: Joseph Planta
- April 1827: John Backhouse
- 1842: Henry Unwin Addington
- 1854: Edmund Hammond
- 1873: Charles Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden
- 1882: Sir Julian Pauncefote
- 1889: Sir Philip Currie
- 1894: Sir Thomas Sanderson
- 1906: Sir Charles Hardinge
- 1910: Sir Arthur Nicolson
- 1916: Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst
- 1920: Sir Eyre Crowe
- 1925: Sir William Tyrrell
- 1928: Sir Ronald Lindsay
- 1930: Sir Robert Vansittart
- 1938: Sir Alexander Cadogan
- 1946: Sir Orme Sargent
- 1949: Sir William Strang
- 1953: Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick
- 1957: Sir Frederick Hoyer Millar
- 1962: Sir Harold Caccia
- 1965: Sir Paul Gore-Booth
- 1969: Sir Denis Greenhill
- 1973: Sir Thomas Brimelow
- 1975: Sir Michael Palliser
- 1982: Sir Antony Acland
- 1986: Sir Patrick Wright
- 1991: Sir David Gillmore
- 1994: Sir John Coles
- 1997: Sir John Kerr
- 2002: Sir Michael Jay
- 2006: Sir Peter Ricketts
- 2010: Sir Simon Fraser
- 2015: Sir Simon McDonald
- 2020: Sir Philip Barton
- 2025: Sir Oliver Robbins