PLAYING THE DIPLOMATS

Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service Football Club never conformed to stereotype. Old Etonians unable to detect the difference between West Ham and Aston Villa were rare.

The club was largely a refuge for working-class lads from all over the country, who were recruited by the Foreign Office in a fit of egalitarianism in the 1980s and ’90s.

For many of us living far from home for the first time at a young age – in most cases,