Appointed as an Allchurches Trust trustee in March 2020, Sir Stephen has been a senior career diplomat and public servant, having served on diplomatic missions and as private secretary in both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Royal Household. He had five years’ experience in the City as a Group Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
For 10 years (2008-2018), Sir Stephen was Receiver General (Chief Executive) of Westminster Abbey and is now the Abbey’s Deputy High Bailiff.
He joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1974 and served at the UK Mission to the United Nations, and at the British embassies in Tehran and Rome. At the Foreign Office in Whitehall he was Private Secretary to Douglas Hurd and Malcolm Rifkind as Ministers of State.
He spent 10 years in the service of the Royal Household. He was appointed Deputy Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales in January 1993, then Private Secretary and Treasurer from 1996 to 2002.
Sir Stephen was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance in March 2020. He has served on a variety of Boards. He was for eight years, until 2015, a Non-Executive Director of Brewin Dolphin. He currently chairs the British Red Cross UK Solidarity Fund Committee, and is a Trustee of the St Katharine’s Foundation and of the Painshill Park Trust. Sir Stephen was appointed CVO in 1999, KCVO in 2002 and GCVO in 2018. He has been a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey since 2006 and was appointed the Vice Lord Lieutenant earlier this year. He is a member of Allchurches Trust’s Audit and Risk Committee.