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Edward Ferguson

British Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia

9th August 2018

Hvala i vidimo se

Ambassador Ferguson and Mrs Ferguson at Hajducka vrata
With my wife Caroline at Hajdučka vrata

“Sarajevo, ljubavi moja”.  Sarajevo, my love.

That was the song I sang at my leaving party.  But, after four years exploring the length and breadth of this remarkable and beautiful country, it should really have been:

“Bosno i Hercegovino, ljubavi moja.”

Working as the UK Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the most demanding job I have ever done – always fascinating, often frustrating.

During my time here, I have worked as hard as I could to help to build a better and more prosperous country, in which all its citizens can feel safe, secure and at home.

We have done a lot.  But clearly a lot remains to be done, and my brilliant successor, Matt Field, will now continue the work.

As I pack my bags, and head towards the airport, I feel a deep sense of gratitude that my family and I had the opportunity to get to know, and to love, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We have tried to make the most of the opportunity.

We have visited your cities, your mosques, your churches, your museums and your galleries.

We have climbed your mountains, rafted your rivers and swum in your lakes.

We have learned your language… or tried to, anyway!

We have made friends who will last a lifetime.

We have marvelled at the extraordinary richness that lies in your nature, your history, your culture and in your diversity.

As a wonderful British politician, Jo Cox, would have said, there is so much more that unites you than divides you.

Too many of your own leaders talk of your differences.  But I haven’t found that at all.  Wherever we have been, whether we have been drinking Sarajevsko, Nektar or Karlovačko, I have found the same warmth, the same generosity, the same sense of humour.

And if you can laugh together, then you can surely live, thrive and succeed together.

We wish you, from our hearts, the success which you so deserve, but which you have for so long been denied by divisive leaders.

Despite all the frustrations of the past four years, I remain optimistic.  I have met so many talented young people who want to look to the future, and not to the past.  Macedonia is showing us that things can change for the better, and quickly.  And change will surely come to BiH as well.  I just hope it will be sooner rather than later.

So thank you for your hospitality and your friendship.

We will always be proud to have a connection to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We will always be proud that our youngest daughter was born in Sarajevo.

I will always be proud to have played a small part in this country’s history, and to have helped to deepen the ties between the UK and BiH.

And wherever I go in the world, wherever my job takes me, I shall always be an ambassador for BiH.

So thanks for everything, and good luck!  We will see you again soon.

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About Edward Ferguson

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington…

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington DC in September 2018. Together with the Defence Attaché, he led the British Defence Staff (United States), a network of 1,000 people spread across 28 States. As the UK’s senior policy adviser on defence relations with the United States, he was responsible for UK-US collaboration on strategic planning, nuclear policy and programmes, trade and acquisition, and science and technology. He was the US Network’s lead on HMG’s Integrated Review and AUKUS, and the senior champion for the Race, Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Group.

Previously, he served as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 2018, where he created and led a new international strategy, co-launched by the British and German Foreign Ministers, that re-energised Euro-Atlantic integration after years of stagnation while stimulating economic growth and reducing high levels of youth unemployment.

A former Exhibitioner and Choral Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, where he was also Treasurer of the Oxford Union, Edward graduated with First Class Honours in Classics in 2001. Joining the Graduate Fast Stream of the Ministry of Defence, he started out in the Naval Staff before joining the Iraq Secretariat during the build-up to and subsequent execution of Operation TELIC. In 2003, he was involved in financial and requirement scrutiny of the Department’s future helicopter procurement programme.

From 2004 to 2006, he managed a national award-winning £300-million programme to consolidate the MOD estate in Greater London and to redevelop RAF Northolt. In 2006, he volunteered for an operational tour, serving as Political Advisor to a British Battlegroup in Maysaan Province, Iraq (while his brother was a troop leader with the British Army in Basra). On his return, he took on responsibility for the strategic management of the UK’s bilateral defence relations with the United States, Canada and Western Europe.

From 2007 to 2009, he worked as Private Secretary to three Defence Secretaries, acting as their closest adviser on issues relating to operations in Iraq, the £6-billion defence equipment programme, science & technology, counter-terrorism and counter-piracy.

In 2009, he was appointed the Head of Afghanistan and Pakistan Policy, responsible for advice to the National Security Council on the policy, financial, legal, parliamentary and presentational aspects of the UK military contribution to operations in Afghanistan, and on the long-term defence role and interests in Pakistan.

From 2011 to 2014, he was Head of Defence Strategy and Priorities, leading two teams, one responsible for leading the MOD’s contribution to developing the 2015 National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review, and the other for prioritising the MOD’s international defence engagement activities. In 2013, he graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc with Distinction in Strategy and Diplomacy. He has been a member of the RCDS Strategic Advisory Panel, a member of the US Air Force Grand Strategy Advisory Board, and is a graduate of the PINNACLE Command and Staff course.

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