Career
He was seconded from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to which he returned to become Head of the Africa Department (Equatorial). He had been First Secretary Political and Information, British High Commission, Islamabad and speechwriter for Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. Hitchens was born in 1962, and educated at the University of Cambridge, where he read English.
After joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office he studied Japanese, and then became Trade Secretary in Tokyo.
From autumn 2008, he took up the position Director, European Political Affairs, in London. In August 2010 he became Director Africa.
In 2012, Hitchens was appointed as Her Majesty Ambassador to Japan. He opened a Twitter account under the handle "UKAmbTim" and, as of 17 May 2015, had over 7000 followers.
He often tweets in Japanese.
