Prague, Jan 3 (CTK) – British Ambassador to the Czech Republic Jan Thompson officially ends in office on Friday and she will be replaced by Nick Archer who arrives in Prague next week, British Embassy spokesman Jiri Sebek has told CTK.
Thompson has headed the embassy for four and a half years.
She has won fame with her original hobbies. She was playing theatre in Prague, kept two cats from an animal shelter at the embassy and was driving an old Skoda 1000 MB with a diplomatic number plate across the Czech Republic.
“Her Majesty’s Ambassador Jan Thompson steps down as British Ambassador to the Czech Republic on 5 January. Ambassador-designate Nick Archer is scheduled to arrive on 13 January,” the embassy said.
“Before Mr Archer presents his credentials to the president, it is Charge d’affairs Angus Stewart who leads the British Embassy,” the office added.
According to information on the British government’s website, Archer has occupied a number of diplomatic posts. He was the ambassador to Denmark, for instance.
With his arrival, a man will be heading the Embassy of the U.K. in Prague after 17 years. Women have headed it since 2001, Thompson being the fourth in a row.
One of her last official events in the post was a meeting with new Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO).
“The prime minister thanked the outgoing ambassador for her four-year work in Prague and her contribution to the development of relations between the Czech Republic and Britain,” the Government Office said in a press release on Tuesday.
Thompson indicated her upcoming departure in a video recording that the embassy shared on social networks before Christmas.
It was inspired by a cult scene from Love Actually British romantic comedy in which the prime minister played by Hugh Grant was dancing to the tunes of Jump (For My Love) song in his seat in Downing Street.
Thompson performed the same dance with the embassy’s employees and she added a message expressing her relation to Czechs. She said she had spent amazing four years in the Czech Republic.
Her colleagues as well as Czech politicians appreciated the video in their comments. The latter said she had been one of the most distinctive personalities among foreign diplomats in Prague.
Thompson, who assumed the post in Prague in September 2013, is an experienced diplomat who worked in Germany, Libya, Afghanistan, in the Balkans, and Thailand in the past. Before she joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, she worked for the BBC TV station.
Thompson also likes mountaineering and she has climbed up Kilimanjaro among others. She is interested in British fashion, amateur theatre, she dealt with sport pole dancing and is an avid football fan.
