Tim Hitchens

Who is Tim Hitchens?

Timothy Mark Hitchens, CMG, LVO is a British diplomat and a former Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, 1999-2002.

He was seconded from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to which he returned to become Head of the Africa Department. He had been First Secretary Political and Information, British High Commission, Islamabad and speechwriter for Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd.

Hitchens was born in 1962, and educated at the University of Cambridge, where he read English. After joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office he studied Japanese, and then became Trade Secretary in Tokyo.

From autumn 2008, he took up the position Director, European Political Affairs, in London. In August 2010 he became Director Africa.

Hitchens was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2012 New Year Honours.

In 2012, Hitchens was appointed as HM Ambassador to Japan. He opened a Twitter account under the hashtag 'UKAmbTim' and, as of 16 January 2014, had over 4000 followers. He often tweets in Japanese.