Drafted and added to Workington's page on Wikipedia June 2009.
Sir Joseph Brian Donnelly (UK diplomat) KCMG, KBE, CMG - Son of Workington steelworker, educated at Workington Grammar School and Oxford University. After school he worked at the GCHQ, and in 1973 began working at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He worked in UK and overseas diplomatic postings before being appointed UK Ambassador toYugoslavia in 1997. During the Kosovo war, when the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was threatened with NATOintervention especially air strikes, Donnelly stayed on with a skeleton embassy staff[28][29]. British High Commissioner(Ambassador) to Zimbabwe from 2001-2004. During these tumultuous years, his straightforward, but forceful approach to the Robert Mugabe government's human rights record may now, with hindsight, appear well ahead of other international players. [30][31][32]. Made KBE Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003, an honour which in diplomatic circles tends to be associated with service in difficult postings.
