Arthur Snell

Biography

Arthur Snell was born in the south-east of England and educated at Oxford University, where he studied History. After graduating with First Class Honours he joined the Foreign and Commonwealth office. After an initial spell on the Iraq desk in London, Arthur was appointed Second Secretary for Political affairs at the British High Commission in Harare, Zimbabwe. He then spent two years (2001-2003) as Second Secretary (Political/Economic) at the British High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria. In 2003 Arthur was able to take up a long-held ambition to study the Arabic language, prior to taking up a posting as First Secretary (Political) at the British Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen. After two years in Yemen managing capacity-building programmes for counter-terrorism assistance, Arthur transferred to the British Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, where he continued to work on counter-terrorism issues.

From 2008 – 2010 Arthur was Assistant Director for Counter-Terrorism at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and managed a £60 million global counter-radicalisation programme, with a particular focus on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. During this period Arthur also completed an MSc at the University of London in International Security and Global Governance. During 2010, Arthur was Deputy Head of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, a multinational civil-military mission delivering stabilisation and reconstruction programmes in Afghanistan’s largest province.

Arthur took up his four-year post as British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, his first Head of Mission appointment, in May 2011. He is accompanied by his wife, four-year old daughter and newborn son. When not working, Arthur enjoys anything involving mountains or boats.