After taking a double first in history at Cambridge and continuing his historical studies as a Research Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, Bryan Cartledge joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1960, subsequently serving in Sweden, the Soviet Union and Iran. He was seconded to 10 Downing Street as Private Secretary for Overseas Affairs to James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher and served as British Ambassador to Hungary from 1980 to 1983, and to the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1988, when he left the Diplomatic Service on his election to be Principal of Linacre College, Oxford. He was knighted in 1985.