Karen Wolstenholme

Karen was born in London but lived in Australia as a child, travelling by ship to Sydney in 1969 - which was the beginning of her lifelong love of the sea. At school her passion was science and Geography - both physical and social - and after completing her studies she was fortunate to join the British Diplomatic Service. She then spent over 30 years in a range of policy, consular and administrative roles both in London and overseas. After Russian language training she was posted to Moscow as Vice-Consul. Further overseas postings followed including to Zimbabwe, New Zealand, The Netherlands and North Korea where she was the first (and so far the only) female British Ambassador. Whilst in New Zealand Karen was responsible for UK relations with Samoa and the Cook Islands and was also responsible for Antarctic relations including the NZ Antarctic Heritage Trust. She was also Deputy-Governor for the Pitcairn Islands and was privileged to spend several months living and working on the island. On returning to the UK she was Head of the South Pacific Section cementing her expertise on the region. After being widowed in 2011 Karen took early retirement but continued working for FCDO in part-time roles as well as taking on a number of voluntary positions with the National Trust, RNLI, WI and NCI. After seeing an advertisement for work with the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands she successfully applied for the role of Government Officer and spent two years living and working on South Georgia at the isolated British Antarctic survey base at King Edward Point - much enjoying having penguins and seals for neighbours! Now heading into retirement Karen’s passion for all types of adventure travel continues and she greatly enjoys meeting other adventurous travellers and hearing their stories.