Education
Rankin was educated at Hutchesons" Boys" Grammar School, the University of Glasgow (where he gained a first class honours degree in Scots law) and McGill University (where he gained a master"s degree in international law).
Rankin was educated at Hutchesons" Boys" Grammar School, the University of Glasgow (where he gained a first class honours degree in Scots law) and McGill University (where he gained a master"s degree in international law).
He qualified and practised as a solicitor in Scotland and was a lecturer in public law at the University of Aberdeen before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) in 1988. Between posts at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office he served at the embassy in Dublin and was consul-general at Boston. He took up his appointment as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and non-resident High Commissioner to the Maldives in February 2011.
In 2015 he moved to be Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
John Rankin is married to Lesley (née Marshall).