Agent-General

An Agent-General is the representative in the United Kingdom of the government of a Canadian Province or an Australian State and, historically, also of a British colony in Jamaica, Nigeria, Canada, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand and subsequently, of a Nigerian Region. Australia and Canada's federal governments were represented by High Commissions, as are all Commonwealth national governments today.

Starting in 1886 Canadian provinces and the federal government also appointed agents general to Paris. The first, Hector Fabre, was dispatched by the province of Quebec but was asked by the federal government to represent all of Canada. He and his successor, Philippe Roy, continued to represent both Quebec City and Ottawa in France until 1912 when the federal government asked Roy to resign his Quebec position to avoid conflicts of interest.

Following a military coup in Nigeria in 1966, the federal system was abolished, and the posts of the Agent-General of Nigerian Regions in London were subsumed in the Nigerian High Commission.