The BDOHP was originally established in 1995 as the result of an approach by Charles Stuart Kennedy in Washington to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1991. Mr Kennedy, a retired US Foreign Service officer, was at that time Director of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Program at the Lauinger Library at Georgetown University. He thought the British Diplomatic Service should know about the United States program and the advantages to scholarship and training to be derived from it, and might wish to consider developing a programme on similar lines.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office thought the idea was a good one but was not willing to take it forward itself for budgetary reasons. The FCO passed the challenge to Malcolm McBain, a retired Diplomatic Service officer, to take up in a private, unsubsidised capacity. Stuart Kennedy provided unstinting encouragement and advice and the unofficial link between the American and the British oral history programmes still flourishes today.

The BDOHP received further practical help and encouragement from the Department of Politics at Leicester University from 1995 to 1997 when the programme was transferred to its present home at the Churchill Archives Centre.