Former Foreign Secretaries

In this section we are in the process of compiling a biography for every former Foreign Secretary, with a new one added each month.

Charles James Fox

A brief but brilliant start to the line of Foreign Secretaries

He presided over a diplomatic revolution by concluding the Anglo-Japanese alliance and the Anglo-French Entente.

A Secretary of State who successfully combined the offices of Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.

Holds the longest continuous term of any Foreign Secretary

A veteran of the Great Game, noted for his aristocratic disdain and vitriolic wit

Nick-named 'the Holy Fox' due to his passion for hunting and his Christian moral outlook

Spent almost a decade as Foreign Secretary during the struggle against Revolutionary France

The first of the ‘three Whig Earls’ (Granville, Clarendon, Rosebery) at the Foreign Office