Patrick Francis Hancock was educated at
Winchester College and
Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the
Diplomatic Service in 1937 and was appointed Third Secretary in the
Foreign Office. On 10 January 1940, he was transferred to the British embassy in
The Hague, but was recalled on 14 May following the German invasion of the
Netherlands. Upon Hancock's return to London, he was seconded to the Ministry of Economic Warfare as Private Secretary to the Minister,
Hugh Dalton. He returned to the Foreign Office on 12 January 1942 and was promoted to Second Secretary in October of the same year. and then to
Norway 1963–65. In 1965 he was transferred back to London and promoted to Assistant Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office, and then promoted again in 1968 to Deputy Under-Secretary. ==Later and private life==