Rosemary Thomas

Rosemary Thomas OBE (born 17 July 1964) is a British diplomat who was Ambassador to Belarus 2009–12.

Early life

She was born Rosemary O'Brien in Liverpool to a catholic family. She attended the Bellerive Girls' School (also known as the Bellerive Convent Grammar School), which was then a catholic girls' direct grant grammar school, and is now the Bellerive FCJ Catholic College. She then attended the University of Leeds where she gained a BA degree in Russian.

Career

FCO

She joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1990. From 1997–8 she was a Desk Officer at the Asia–Europe Meeting Summit, then from 1998–2001 was in the Russian Section of the Eastern Department. From 2001–3 she was Head of the office for cooperation with the OSCE and the Council of Europe. From 2003–5 she was Head of the War Crimes Section in the International Organisations Department.

EU

From 2006–7 she was the Head of Communications of the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine, based in Odessa.

Afghanistan

From 2007–8 she was First Secretary of Counter Narcotics in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Ambassador

She became the British Ambassador to Belarus on 17 September 2009, based in Minsk.^[1] She left Belarus in July 2012 to transfer to another Diplomatic Service appointment.^[2]

Personal life

She married Alan Howard Thomas in 1990. She is a member of the National Liberal Club.

She received the OBE in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

References

• THOMAS, Rosemary, Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2011, accessed 7 Sept 2012

Video clips

• Belarus TV (National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus)