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Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Part of UK in Australia

1st July 2011

Adelaide: Australia’s most English city

High Commissioner Paul Madden feeds a giant panda at the Adelaide Zoo
High Commissioner Paul Madden feeds a giant panda at the Adelaide Zoo

Adelaide with its graceful buildings and abundant parkland is sometimes described as the most British, even English, of Australian cities. I certainly found many connections there. The Premier, Mike Rann, is English-born. The Governor, Admiral Kevin Scarce, served in Portsmouth as a young naval officer. And Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood had just returned from a study tour in London. British people continue to flock to Adelaide, recently voted the world’s seventh most liveable city. I met several relatively recent arrivals, including a policeman who told me that 15% of South Australia’s police force have been recruited from the UK.

I visited the branch campus of University College London (its only overseas campus), and the first branch of the Royal Institution to be established outside the UK. I also met representatives of the three local universities which all had tie-ups with British counterparts. A number of British companies, including BAE Systems, a major investor in the local economy, told me about their interest in South Australia’s burgeoning defence industry. 

Our excellent Honorary Consul, James Bruce, hosted a recpetion with a large number of representatives of British-linked clubs and societies.  It took place at Adelaide Zoo where Zoo Director Chris West (another Brit) invited me to feed Fu Ni the Giant Panda – a rare treat.

The quest for renewable energy sources is a priority for both our countries, so I was interested to learn that South Australia is second only to Denmark in wind-farms, which produce some 20% of its energy requirements.  The state has a particularly good wind resource endowment, in the form of the “Roaring Forties”, the winds which used to power the superfast Clippers in the great age of Sail.

About Paul Madden

Paul Madden has been the British Ambassador to Japan from January 2017. He was Additional Director for Asia Pacific at the FCO in 2015.He was British High Commissioner to Australia…

Paul Madden has been the British Ambassador to Japan from January 2017.

He was Additional Director for Asia Pacific at the FCO in 2015.He was British High Commissioner to Australia until February 2015. Prior to this he was British High Commissioner in Singapore from 2007-2011.

A career diplomat, he was previously Managing Director at UK Trade and Investment (2004-2006), responsible for co-ordinating and
implementing international trade development strategies to support
companies across a wide range of business sectors.

As Assistant Director of Information at the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (2003-2004) he was responsible for public diplomacy policy,
including managing the FCO funding of the BBC World Service, the British
Council and the Chevening Scholarships programme. He led the team
responsible for the award-winning UK pavilion at the Aichi Expo in Japan
2005.

He was Deputy High Commissioner in Singapore from 2000-2003 and has
also served in Washington (1996-2000) and Tokyo (1988-92). Between
1992-96 he worked on EU enlargement and Environmental issues at the FCO
in London.

Before joining FCO he worked at the Department of Trade and Industry
(1980-87) on a range of industrial sectors and trade policy, including
two years as a minister’s Private Secretary.

He has an MA in Economic Geography from Cambridge University, an MBA
from Durham University, studied Japanese at London University’s School
of Oriental and African Studies, and is a Fellow of the Royal
Geographical Society. His first book, Raffles: Lessons in Business
Leadership, was published in 2003.

Married to Sarah, with three children, he was born in 1959, in Devon.