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Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Part of UK in Australia

14th December 2011

New British citizens

I had the very pleasant experience today of conducting my first Citizenship Ceremony, in which we conferred British citizenship on seven people at the High Commission in Canberra.

They were all Australians who were acquiring citizenship through family links or through naturalisation after living in the UK for some time. It used to be the case that British citizenship could not be passed on through a British born mother to children born outside the UK before 1961, but that rule was changed in November 2010 and the Home Office fee removed,  this is generating quite a few applications. In total we perform up to 350 citizenship ceremonies in our Australian network each year.

As dual nationals, the new British citizens will be able to travel, live and work in all the 27 countries of the European Union. They will be able to call on the FCO’s worldwide network of overseas posts for support if they run into difficulties on their travels, whether or not they have used their British passport to enter the country concerned, provided they are not also a citizen of that country.

The actual ceremony is quite a straight forward official procedure. The participants had not risked life and limb travelling perilous oceans to win their citizenship. But it was nonetheless an important and solemn occasion and that was apparent in the dignified way in which the new citizens proclaimed their oath or pledge of allegiance. 

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.

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