Alan Charlton has been in Washington since May 2004 with the role of ensuring achievement of the British Embassy’s objectives through co-ordination of the work of the Embassy, and the UK’s Consulates General and Consulates across the US. Charlton has much experience dealing with European issues. In particular Germany has been the main thread of his working life. As a 19-year-old he worked for six months in a bank in Munich. After qualifying as a teacher in Britain, he worked for two years in a German comprehensive school in Gelsenkirchen. In the British Diplomatic Service he spent four years in West Berlin from 1986-1990 - before, during and after the fall of the Wall. He was posted to the British Embassy in Bonn in 1996 and moved, as Deputy Head of Mission, to Berlin when the German Government and Parliament moved there in summer 1999. A second important strand in Charlton's Diplomatic Service career has been the Balkans. He was head of the relevant department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1993 to 1995 and then became the British member of the Bosnia Contact Group, which included participating in the peace conference at Dayton, Ohio in November 1995. In 2001 he was Director South East Europe in the FCO, working with the international community to bring stability to that troubled region. Finally, Charlton has experience in the Middle East, having served as Israel desk officer and in Jordan. He learned Arabic and worked in London on the Iraq war in 1991. Charlton was educated at Cambridge, Leicester and Manchester Universities, taking degrees in modern languages and linguistics and also a Post Graduate Certificate of Education. He was appointed Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1996.
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