On joining the British Foreign Office, Stagg worked in the Department responsible for Hong Kong – on his second day the Hong Kong Police mutinied, adding to the challenge of managing Britain’s last major overseas territory.

After two years as British Press Spokesman in Brussels during the Maastricht negotiations (which led to a landmark treaty paving the way for the Euro), he became a Private Secretary to the British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd.

Stagg was appointed British Ambassador to Bulgaria in 1998 and served there for three years during the war over the future of Kosovo.

Stagg was British High Commissioner to India from 2007 to 2011,[1] and Ambassador to Afghanistan from April 2012 until he retired in early 2015.

[2] In September 2019 he took up the post of Warden of Winchester College, chairing its board of governors.