Cheltenham wife of new Governor of Bank of England

WHILE controversy surrounds the appointment of the first foreign governor of the Bank of England, the new boss has a very English wife.

Diana Fox, who is married to Mark Carney, was brought up in Cheltenham.

She first caught the new Governor of the Bank of England's eye on the hockey fields of Oxford when she scored a hat-trick for the ladies team.

It was apparently love at first sight for Mark Carney who was also a hockey player at the university in 1991. He had moved there for a masters in economics after studying at Harvard.

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The couple's love of sports brought them together from very different backgrounds.

Mr Carney, 47, was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, where his mother made fur-lined parkas to keep her three sons warm in the freezing temperatures while his father was principal of the local high school.

Miss Fox, as she continues to call herself, was a first-class graduate in politics, philosophy and economics and won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to study international relations. She gained a science degree in agricultural economics when she returned to Oxford.

She married Mr Carney in Bullingdon, Oxfordshire, in July 1994.

Her husband took a job with Goldman Sachs and the young couple set up home in fashionable Hampstead, North London.

They moved to Ottawa in 2003, where they now have an £800,000 home and four daughters, all under the age of ten. Miss Fox, 46, refers to them endearingly as the 'young Foxes'.

Before following her rising star husband Mark back to Canada, she worked for the Department for International Development, the Overseas Development Institute and as a consultant for aid charities. Once in Canada, she continued to explore her long held interest in green issues.

She recently wrote on an ecologist website: 'About 15 years ago, I made a conscience decision to switch to eco products whenever possible.

'Since then I have actively sought out organic, natural and resource-saving products (and tried to limit my overall consumption).

'I do not claim to be an eco-purist and my journey towards natural products has not always been smooth. But I do think I have made progress.'  Last year she took on a senior role, as vice president of research, in the think-tank Canada 2020 – whose mission statement is create 'the Canada we want in 2020' by 'informing and influencing debate'.

Giving an insight into her life in the Canadian capital, Miss Fox said: 'I am originally from the UK but am now based in Ottawa, Canada. I am a multi-tasking mother-of-four: I combine working on federal government policy issues with raising my children and running a busy household.'

And in an acute observation of the realities of everyday life for a busy mother she wrote on her Twitter feed: '57 per cent of Canadian companies are "lifestyle": they make decisions based on getting the kids to hockey.'

Her hobbies include modern dance, cross-country skiing, cycling and flowers.

Despite his role as Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mr Carney has still found time to coach his daughter's football team.