Francis Cornish

Robert Francis Cornish CMG LVO (Chinese:鄺富劭, Born 18 May 1942) is a retired British diplomat. He has served as 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).

Cornish had other diplomatic and royal postings:

• deputy private secretary to The Prince of Wales
• spokesman to the Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd
• High Commissioner to Brunei
• handover transition advisor to Governor Chris Patten

Francis Cornish was Chairman of South West Tourism (2003–2009) and is now chairman of the Taunton Town Centre Company and has a smallholding in the Quantocks. He is a non-executive director of two property companies.