Francis Cornish

Francis Cornish   (diplomat)
Born	18 May 1942
Alma mater	Charterhouse School, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
spooky British diplomat  British Ambassador to Israel In office 1998 - 2001 Preceded by David Manning Succeeded by Sherard Cowper-Coles  British Consul-General Hong Kong In office 1 July 1997 - November 1997

Robert Francis Cornish is a retired British diplomat. He has been the Foreign Office spokesman for Douglas Hurd, Senior Trade Commissioner to Hong Kong (until 1997), Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macao (July to November 1997), head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's News Department, and Ambassador to Israel (1998 to 2001).

Career

He joined the British Foreign Office in 1968. From 1969 to 1976, he worked in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jakarta, Indonesia, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1976 to 1980, he was First Secretary at the British Embassy in Bonn, West Germany. In 1983 he was Assistant Private Secretary to Charles, Prince of Wales.

Kwong was transferred to the British High Commissioner to Brunei from 1983 to 1986, the Director of the British Information Service in New York from 1986 to 1990, and the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. as intelligence advisor. From 1990 to 1993, he was transferred back to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the head of the News Department and the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the then Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd.

In 1993, he was the last British High Commissioner of Commerce in Hong Kong, where he advised Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten on the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong. On September 26, 1996, the Chinese and British governments reached an agreement that after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the United Kingdom would establish a consulate general in Hong Kong. The British government then issued a note on June 13, 1997, stating that the Queen had appointed him as the first consul general. He become Britain's highest-ranking diplomatic representative in Hong Kong after the handover of sovereignty. However, Cornish did not stay in office for a long time and resigned in November of the same year.

He was Ambassador to Israel 1998 to 2001.

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