Fiona Ritchie (diplomat)

Fiona Eileen Ritchie is a diplomat who became the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Malawi in 2022. She hosted the local celebration of the coronation of Charles III as head of the commonwealth. She agreed the partnership with the Lake of Stars Festival and authorised funds for a free election in Malawi in 2025.
Life
Ritchie is from Edinburgh and Scottish. Her mother encouraged her to be ambitious and this was reinforced when she attended the local . She studied English Literature at Aberdeen University and during a gap year she discovered that she liked to travel. She started to study at St Andrews University but she switched to a Masters at the University of Strathclyde in Librarianship and Information Retrieval.
She became the development director working for the British High Commission in Malawi. After a year she became the High Commissioner, taking up her new job in August 2022. She was introduced by her predecessor, David Beer, during the celebrations in Lilongwe on 8 June, to celebrate 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. She led the British High Commission which employed about 60 people.
Charles III became the head of the commonwealth and ten Malawian soldiers were among the 4,000 from the commonwealth at the coronation in May 2023. Ritchie organised a reception on 11 May at her official residence to mark the new King's coronation and she entertained Nancy Tembo who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nancy Tembo assured Ritchie of her country's support for Charles III. In August, Ritchie, committed $2m of UK funds through the United Nations to underwrite free and fair elections in Malawi in 2025.
In 2024, Ritchie arranged for sponsorship for the Lake of Stars Festival by the UK and became the music festival's main sponsor. She announced it with the Malawian entrepreneur Zilanie Gondwe. Ritchie saod that she expected to continue to provode sponsorship for the festival as she saw this as a contribution to Malawi's economic development.<ref name=main/>
In 2025 she awarded Coronation medals on behalf of the King to the soldiers who had been at the coronation.<ref name=mtenrb/>

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