John Rankin
Biography
John Rankin CMG became Governor of the British Virgin Islands on 29 January 2021.
Mr Rankin was Governor of Bermuda from December 2016 to November 2020. He was previously British Ambassador to Nepal and before that was British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Mr Rankin has also served as Director for the Americas in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for a network of over 30 British embassies, high commissions and other consulates in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Mr Rankin joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1988 as a Legal Adviser and served in that capacity at the UK Mission to the UN and to the UK Mission to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. He has also served as Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Dublin, working on the Northern Ireland peace process, and was Her Majesty’s Consul General in Boston.
Mr Rankin has a degree in Scots Law from the University of Glasgow and a Masters Degree in International Law from McGill University, Montreal. Prior to joining the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, he qualified and practiced as a solicitor in Scotland and was a lecturer in public law at the University of Aberdeen. He has 3 grown-up children.
His hobbies include football, tennis and playing bad golf.
Previous roles in government
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Governor to the British Virgin Islands
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Governor to Bermuda
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British Ambassador to Nepal
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British High Commissioner to Maldives
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British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka