Peter Ricketts, Baron Ricketts

Peter Forbes Ricketts, Baron Ricketts, GCMG, GCVO (born 30 September 1952) is a retired British senior diplomat and a life peer. He sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.

Ricketts attended Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield, and Pembroke College, Oxford where he read English Literature. In 1982 he married Suzanne Horlington; they have two adult children.

Ricketts replaced Peter Westmacott as UK Ambassador to France effective January 2012, with Kim Darroch taking Ricketts's old role as National Security Adviser.

In December 2015 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced that he was to retire from the Diplomatic Service in January 2016.

Prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser, Lord Ricketts had been the Permanent Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Before he took over that position in July 2006, he served as the Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels. He was also previously the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, leading him to give evidence to The Iraq Inquiry in November 2009. He began his career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1974 and served as the Assistant Private Secretary to former Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe. Apart from Brussels, he has been posted to Singapore, Washington D.C. and Paris. Ricketts retired from HM Diplomatic Service in January 2016.

Retirement

In 2016 he took appointments as Strategic Adviser to Lockheed Martin UK and Non Executive Director of Engie.

He was appointed CMG in the 1999 Birthday Honours, Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 2003, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 2011 New Year Honours, and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 2014.

He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours and was created Baron Ricketts, of Shortlands in the County of Kent, on 17 October.