Role

Discussing his role as Chair of the Advisory Board, Sir Francis said: "I feel privileged and delighted to be involved with the School as it takes its already outstanding credentials to a new level. I find its practical focus, its insights and its enterprise inspiring, and its ambitions for the immediate future - reflected in the landmark building now under construction - exciting."

Career

After serving in the army, he has had a varying career which has included:

• serving in the Foreign Service
• Minister in the British Embassy in Russia
• Britain’s first High Commissioner on independence
• Deputy Under Secretary of State for defence and intelligence in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• Director, GCHQ
• Governor and Commander in Chief of Gibraltar
• Head of the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy
• Chairman of the Trustees of Bletchley Park
• Chairman of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum

Additional posts

Sir Francis is also:

• Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Birmingham’s Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy
• Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire
• a Commander of the Victorian Order