Ashraf AboArfe
CAIRO – The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has announced in London today that the new British Ambassador to Egypt will be Mr Gareth Bayley. Mr Bayley will take over from the current Ambassador, Sir Geoffrey Adams, in September.
Mr Bayley’s most recent appointment was as Director for South Asia and Afghanistan in the FCDO in London, at the same time serving as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Before that he was the UK Special Representative for Syria.
Mr Bayley’s first diplomatic posting was in Cairo, where he studied Arabic and then served as Second Secretary at the British Embassy from 1998 to 2002. Mr Bayley is delighted to be returning to Cairo; he has the fondest memories of life and diplomatic service there. His subsequent diplomatic career has included postings in Baghdad, Jerusalem and New York. He is married to a fellow diplomat, Ms Sara Fawcett.
Sir Geoffrey Adams and his wife Mary Emma will be leaving Cairo at the end of his three-year posting. He will then be retiring after a 42-year diplomatic career which included appointments as British Ambassador to Iran and to the Netherlands, as Consul General in Jerusalem, and as Political Director at the FCDO in London. He and Mr Bayley worked together in Cairo 20 years ago.
Sir Geoffrey is following a family tradition: just as his final diplomatic posting has been in Cairo, so his father, Sir Philip Adams, retired as British Ambassador to Egypt in 1975.
