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Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Part of UK in Sweden

19th March 2013

Farewell to Princess Lilian

It was an honour to attend the beautiful and moving funeral service for Princess Lilian, at Slottskyrkan on Saturday.

It was a service with a strong British flavour, with the Palace Choir singing Vaughan Williams’ For All the Saints and a wonderful choral arrangement of Parry’s Jerusalem.

The congregation sang Abide with Me (in English) and Amazing Grace  (in Swedish).  At the end a lone piper played Auld Lang Syne in the hushed chapel.

Representatives of the British community, including from societies of which Princess Lilian was patron, were invited to the service. Many more lined the streets of central Stockholm, with many thousands of Swedes, as the cortege made its way to the Royal burial ground north of the city. It’s clear the Princess had a special place in the hearts of people in Sweden.

Unlike my predecessors I never had the privilege of meeting Princess Lilian, but, like others, I have been moved by the story of her and Prince Bertil’s life together.

She clearly meant a great deal to many in the British community here and we plan a memorial service at the English Church in due course.

About Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially. He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide…

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially.

He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide range of political and security roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Paul joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993 as Desk Officer for Bosnia. As part of this role he was also Private Secretary to EU negotiator Lord Owen and his representative on Bosnia Contact Group.

His first foreign posting was to Paris in 1995-99 as Second Secretary Political. He was Private Secretary to the Ambassador and latterly part of the UK delegation to the Kosovo Rambouillet negotiations. Then he returned to London as Head of the Kosovo Policy Team, leading work on post-conflict policy in the EU, NATO, UN and G8.

Before his second overseas posting to New York in 2005, Paul held a variety of other EU policy and security appointments in London, such as Head of European Defence Section between 2000-01 and Head of Security Policy Department between 2002-04.

As Head of the Political Section in UKMIS New York, he advised on major policy issues for the UK on the Security Council and the UN World Summit, including the UK EU Presidency in 2005.

Paul returned to London in 2008 as Director, International Security for the FCO. He was responsible for policy on UN, NATO, European Security, arms control and disarmament, human rights and good governance.

Paul was British Ambassador to Sweden from August 2011 to August 2015 and then was Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO.

He was UK Ambassador to the EU for Political and Security affairs from 2017 to January 2020 and became Ambassador to Ireland in September 2020.

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Princess Lilian