Richard Fell

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Richard Taylor Fell CVO (b. 11 November 1948) was the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and the colonial Governor of the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands (of which only Pitcairn is inhabited) from 2001 to 2006.

He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1971, after completing an MA in Area Studies (1971) at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, serving in the South Asian Department. His first international post was a two-year stint in Ottawa, Canada, as 3rd Secretary. Since then he has served in Saigon (1974-1975, as 2nd Secretary), Vientiane (1975 on temporary duty), Hanoi (1979 as Chargé d’Affaires), Brussels (1979-1983, as a 1st Secretary with United Kingdom Delegation to NATO), Kuala Lumpur (1983-1986 as Head of Chancery), and Ottawa 1989-1993 as Counsellor, Economic/Commercial. He was Deputy Head of Mission in Bangkok 1993-1996, and Consul-General in Toronto in 2000.

He was in the Southern European Department of the FCO 1975-1976, and the Central and Southern African Department 1977-1978, as Assistant, South East Asian Department 1986-1988. In 1988-1989 he was on loan to industry, and 1996-1997 at the FCO on the Whitehall Scrutiny Review of Commercial Services. In 1997-2000 he was Head of Personnel Services Department. He spent 2000-2001 at the Royal College of Defence Studies.

Fell is widely disliked in the Pitcairn Islands because of his dismissal of Commissioner Leon Salt, the British government's decision to staff Pitcairn with several outside police officers and social workers, and his office's handling of a sex abuse scandal. Six of the seven men accused were convicted, with four of them sentenced to prison terms, but currently remain free on bail, pending an appeal to the Privy Council. Islanders fear that if the four (a third of the adult male population) are imprisoned, that may force the evacuation of Pitcairn, which has been successfully inhabited since 1790, due to lack of self-sufficiency. Another cause of resentment is that during Fell's term regular ship service to the island, which brought in much-needed revenue, was ended.