Francis Richards (diplomat)

Sir Francis Neville Richards, KCMG, CVO, DL (born 1945), was Her Majesty's Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar from 2003 to 2006.

Born the son of Sir Brooks Richards, who served in Gibraltar with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, Francis Richards was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge and then commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets, serving with the United Nations Force in Cyprus.

After Richards' army career was cut short by injury, he entered the Diplomatic Service, serving in New Delhi and Namibia and holding a number of senior posts at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He was the first High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Namibia.

He was Director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham from 1998 to 2003 and then served as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar from 2003 to 2006.

At the end of his term in Gibraltar on 17 July 2006, Richards handed-over the keys to the fortress of Gibraltar, in the traditional 'Ceremony of the Keys', and departed on HMS Monmouth. He was succeeded as Governor in September 2006 by Lieutenant General Sir Robert Fulton, KBE, a former Commandant General of the Royal Marines.

An Honorary Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham, Richards was appointed Director of its Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy in April 2007. He currently stands on the board of Governors at Rendcomb College.

Richards is married with two children.