Sir Peter Westmacott

Peter Westmacott joined the Diplomatic Service in 1972 after studying at Oxford. His early career took him to Tehran and Brussels; he later became deputy private secretary to the Prince of Wales. He served in Washington as counsellor for political and public affairs in the 1990s, directed the Foreign Office's Americas work, and became ambassador to Turkey and then France. ¹

Returning as ambassador in January 2012, Westmacott remained in Washington until January 2016. His public diplomacy included the 2014 Magna Carta exhibition at the Library of Congress. At its opening ceremony, he passed the ceremonial key to the document's display case to Librarian of Congress James Billington, recreating the wartime entrusting ceremony in which Lord Lothian had placed the original charter in American safekeeping. ²