Nigel Baker

Baker was educated at Dulwich College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he gained a first class degree in history. After a brief period as researcher in the Conservative Research Department he joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1989. After early overseas postings in Prague and Bratislava he took a research sabbatical in Verona (from 1996–97) studying Italian and European history.

Returning to the FCO, he was Head of the European Defence Section in the Security Policy Department between 1998–2000. He was then assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales 2000–03, Deputy Head of Mission, Havana, 2003–06 and Ambassador to Bolivia 2007–11 before being appointed to the Holy See.[2] He presented his credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011. In 2016, he returned to the FCO as Deputy Director for the Americas and Head of the South America Department. He became Deputy Director and Head of the Latin America Department in 2018.

Baker was appointed MVO in 2003 for services to the Prince of Wales, and OBE in 2010.[3]

In 2013 he edited Britain and the Holy See: A Celebration of 1982 and the Wider Relationship, which set out the proceedings of the 2012 Rome Colloquium on the relationship between Britain and the Holy See. Contributors include Professor Eamon Duffy, Professor Judith Champ, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

In August 2020 he will become Ambassador to Slovakia, and will succeed Andrew Garth.

• BAKER, Nigel Marcus, Who's Who 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2011, accessed 19 March 2012
• Change of Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 15 April 2011
• Our Ambassador, British Embassy to the Holy See
• Nigel Baker is ambassador to the Holy See, The Telegraph, London, 15 Apr 2011