Richard Wood is a British diplomat, who served as the British Ambassador to Norway from 2018 to 2023.

Early life

Richard John Wood was born on 27 August 1967 in

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Wood is the son of John Michael Wood and Christine Barbara Wood. Wood was educated at Lynn Grove High School and East Norfolk Sixth Form College. Wood attended Leeds Polytechnic, graduating with a BA (Hons) in European languages and institutions in 1990.

Career

Wood joined the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

(FCO) in 1990. His first role was as Desk Officer for the Single Market, European Presidency, and Gibraltar. His first foreign posting was as the Second Secretary for internal politics in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

. During his first posting Wood was outed as

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

to the FCO Security Department by colleagues, and was sent back to Britain and told to expect dismissal. He was allowed to keep his job, but said that he faced "years of resentment and fear". After returning to the UK in 1998, he was press officer for Africa in the FCO news department two years, head of a European Union team for two years, then was posted to the UK mission in New York as first secretary (human rights/social development) from 2002 to 2007. He was back in

as British Consul General from 2007 to 2011, then briefly served in

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

, Iraq before he returned to the FCO in 2012. An appointment to Washington DC as Counsellor (foreign and security policy) was ended in 2015, when he became head of the FCO Northern and Central Europe Department. He was appointed Ambassador to Norway in August 2018.

Ambassador to Norway

Wood was appointed the British Ambassador to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

on 23 August 2018.

Personal life

Wood married his husband Xavier Piot in 2008. They have a dog called Hudson. Wood speaks fluent Norwegian.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Richard 1967 births Living people British diplomats English LGBTQ people LGBTQ diplomats Members of HM Diplomatic Service Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Norway 20th-century British diplomats 21st-century British diplomats