1. Barbara Woodward is the current Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, having previously served as British Ambassador to China from 2015 to 2020, the first woman to hold that position.
15 Facts About Barbara Woodward
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Barbara Woodward joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1994 and has worked in China and Russia, and at the European Union and the United Nations.
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Barbara Janet Woodward was born to Arthur Claude Woodward and Rosemary Monica Gabrielle Fenton in Gipping, Suffolk, United Kingdom, on 29 May 1961.
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Barbara Woodward's father served in World War II as an officer of the Suffolk Regiment, and won the Military Cross for gallantry.
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Barbara Woodward was later elected Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
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Barbara Woodward was educated at South Lee School in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and then at Saint Felix School, a co-educational, boarding independent school in Southwold, Suffolk.
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Barbara Woodward was then admitted to the University of St Andrews in Scotland in 1979 and read history.
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Barbara Woodward graduated in 1983 with an undergraduate Master of Arts degree.
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Barbara Woodward taught English, first at Nankai University, and then at Hubei University, in Wuhan, China between 1986 and 1988.
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Barbara Woodward joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1994.
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Barbara Woodward served in Russia from 1994 to 1998 as Second Secretary, and in China from 2003 to 2009, first as Political Counsellor, then across the whole United Kingdom-China relationship as Deputy Head of Mission, including during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
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Barbara Woodward was succeeded in September 2020 by Caroline Wilson.
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Barbara Woodward was appointed Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations by the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, in 2020.
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Barbara Woodward is a member of the Otter Swimming Club in London and has previously served as its Honorary Secretary.
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Barbara Woodward was included in the 1999 New Year Honours list and made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II when she was serving as the First Secretary to Moscow.