Andrew Skeen (Rhodesia)

Brigadier Andrew Skeen ICD OBE (c. 1906 – 11 May 1984) was a British Army officer, and Rhodesian politician who served as the last High Commissioner from Rhodesia to the United Kingdom.

He retired from the British Army in 1947 and moved to the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia and settled in Vumba in Umtali district.

On 11 November 1965, when Rhodesia announced its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), Skeen was summoned by the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, Arthur Bottomley, for a meeting at 1.15pm where Bottomley ordered Skeen to denounce the UDI or face being declared persona non grata with the removal of all privileges and expulsion from 13 November.

[5] Skeen refused and departed London voluntarily the following day on 12 November 1965, although Rhodesia House (the High Commission) continued to function as a representative office with no official diplomatic status.

Skeen's functions were assumed by chargé d'affaires Sydney Brice, who was officially regarded as "The Southern Rhodesian Representative" by the British Foreign Office.