New Tristan Desk Officer
Introducing the latest Tristan man in Whitehall
Derek Lavery at the top of the Baiterek Tower in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Perhaps there couldn’t be a bigger contrast to Tristan da Cunha?
Derek was in Kazakhstan on a posting until the end of July 2022, having been there for 4 years. Geographically it’s very different to Tristan as it’s about as far as you can get from the sea anywhere on the planet (the actual farthest place from the sea is a bit farther south and east in China). Prior to that Derek was in Russia for three years, serving in St Petersburg, Moscow and Ekaterinburg.
Other jobs in the FCO were in Ghana, Azerbaijan, Germany and Pakistan with the usual stints in London.
Derek is really looking forward to working on the kind of issues that come up with remote Overseas Territories – very different from his previous experience.
And of course he’s looking forward even more to visiting!
In fact, Derek is now Desk Officer Tristan da Cunha and the Pitcairn Islands in the Overseas Territories Directorate at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Coincidentally, Fiona Kilpatrick and Steve Townsend, Joint Tristan Administrators 2020-2022, will next take up post as Adminisrators on Pitcairn Island, so Derek will continue to work with them having established a working relationship during their final weeks on the island up to September 2022.
