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By Andy Newbold (Pr & Media Manager for the High Sheriff of Surrey.) 

The Role of High Sheriff It’s the oldest official Royal appointment – steeped with tradition and dating back to before the Norman Conquest. Every County in England and Wales has one, and along with the Lord-Lieutenant, who is the Kings representative, is an official County link to the Royal Family – representing them here in Surrey.

A High Sheriff is appointed personally by the Sovereign and it is an independent, non-political and unpaid office, each occupant funding what they do during their year. The year-long role is awarded to people who have the means and have proven their commitment to the County. Aside from upholding and enhancing this ancient office,  In a nutshell, the modern role is to support the work of the Lord Lieutenant, support the judiciary in maintaining law and order in the county, to take an active role in highlighting the work done by the voluntary sector and acknowledging their contribution to society, and to convene and connect, bringing together all sections of the diverse community for the benefit of the county. 

In March this year, Mr Peter Cluff was installed as High sheriff, taking over from Shahid Azeem DL, at a ceremony in Guildford Cathedral. With a background in the financial sector and an already established position in the County as a philanthropist, a trustee of the Community Foundation of Surrey and Chair of Guildford Philanthropy, Peter, who had cleared most of his diary for the term of office, had already taken steps to ensure his theme for the year – highlighting the NEET (not in education, employment or training) crisis, was established at the onset by commissioning an extensive report into the matter with the help of the ‘Centre for Britain and Europe’ team at Surrey University. Soon after his installation he held a conference at the University to establish support and later a follow up at KBR in Leatherhead with encouraging results and an obvious rise in awareness of the issue. Progress can be seen via a link on the home page of the High Sheriff’s website.

Inspired by the blogs of previous recent high sheriffs, Peter adopted the same process detailing his experiences, accompanied often by his wife Suzanne who also took many of the photographs along the way. As I write there have been some 160 official blogs in the past nine months – the majority of which were reports from county wide visits or events. 

Add to that the many other meetings associated with the role and the time spent on travel and planning and I think I can safely say that Peter has most definitely so far upheld and enhanced this ancient role!

The blogs, which live in the news section of the website, established in 2017 during Robert Napier MBE DL’s tenure, include the work of all of the High sheriffs since and form a fascinating archive of life in Surrey. 

I think Peter and all previous High Sheriff’s would agree that the visits around the county are the most important part of the role. Above all It is a chance to recognise those who do good things in their community – organisers of events, or community groups, hard working workers for charities, our police, fire and ambulance teams, magistrates and people working in the prison service, and of course the army of volunteers that donate their time to make other peoples lives better. With so many visits under his belt I asked Peter to single out his most memorable visits to give you the reader an idea of what being a High Sheriff is all about. 

“It is very difficult to pick favourite experiences from my year so far, there has been such an incredible variety of charities, community events and civic occasions – testament to the culturally rich and diverse County we live in – every single one has been memorable and I have learned so much about Surrey and also been to places I never knew existed”

“Our Day started at Brookwood Cemetery  at the Chapel in the Civilian Cemetery. where my Wife Suzanne and I were accompanied by one of my two High Sheriff’s Cadets – Grace.  It is a beautiful and very well-maintained grade 1 listed historical park with an arboretum of trees and an abundance of wildlife. It is an important resting place and the largest cemetery in the UK with over 250,000 people buried here. Then followed a tour of the American Cemetery, which brought home to us the huge sacrifices made by our American allies. The graves here were for those US soldiers from the first world war which lost their lives in and around the UK waters whose families chose not to have their bodies repatriated, the second world war US cemetery is in Cambridge. We then visited the surrounding Commonwealth Military Cemetery where we were told of heroic, though sadly tragic, stories of some members of the Special Operations Executive remembered here. We left Brookwood Cemetery very humbled, and with a bigger appreciation of those foreign nations that helped win the war. We also visited. The stunning RAF Memorial near Egham – an impressive monument designed by Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed Guildford Cathedral) with incredible views towards London and Windsor. The memorial commemorates by name over 20,000 men and women of the air forces operating in the Uk and North and Western Europe who were lost in the Second World War and have no known graves. Then it was on to Runnymede Meadows – the site of the signing of the Magna Carta, managed by the National Trust with a walk through the meadows stopping at various interesting points. We learned about the site and the installations that were featured there, the most important of which of course was the commemoration of the site of the sealing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215. I felt very honoured to be present as the current High Sheriff of Surrey knowing that the original signing was witnessed by a predecessor High Sheriff of Surrey”.

The High Sheriff and his entourage wrapped up Surrey Day at the  Impressive D’Oyly Carte Island where the Lord Lieutenant and other dignitaries met up to share their thoughts of the day with BBC Radio Surrey’s Mark Carter (a deputy Lieutenant of Surrey himself), and he and Suzanne were given a personal tour of the island by owner Andy Hill who told them of its connection with Gilbert & Sullivan and the history of this really special place.

“Another of my favourite events was the ‘Summer Party’ which was a variation of the traditional High Sheriff’s Garden party with the emphasis on promoting some of the charities in Surrey – a great opportunity for them to be thanked by Mayors and Dl’s too for the valuable work they do. This was held at another Iconic venue – Brooklands Museum on what was a wet and windy day but thankfully the sun broke the clouds to allow aa group photograph under the nose of Concorde with some of the cadets who were in attendance.”

Another change instigated by Robert Napier in recent years was the introduction of a new role – the High Sheriff’s Cadet or in some cases ‘Cadets’. Peter has two Police Cadets during his term – Grace and Imogen, who share the responsibility of assisting the High Sheriff at various events. This is a great development that gives young people the opportunity to interact with the High Sheriff and encourage other young people to appreciate the importance of his/her role.

A very different event happened in the summer in the shape of a wine walk through the Surrey Hills with a group of friends – a marvellous day which led to sore legs for a few days afterwards but a great deal of money was raised for the High Sheriff Youth Awards so it was certainly worth the effort!

The High Sheriff also tries to link up with High Sheriff’s from other counties where possible, and he recalls being part of a posse of them from London, West and East Sussex and Kent on a visit to Gatwick Airport.

“We had a fascinating in-depth look at the UK’s second busiest airport handling over 43 million passengers a year. The day started with a visit to the police station at the airport which provided a glimpse of the complexities involved in policing, followed by an introduction to the Armed Response and dog Handling Teams. The dogs of choice are spaniels due to their tenacity and they are trained just to search for explosives and we were treated to a demonstration of their extraordinary skill in detecting explosive material. We were then handed over to the operators of Gatwick Airport where the team enlightened us to the complexities of running the busiest single runway airport in the world and the largest single site employer in the South East with more than 22,000 jobs on site (plus 76,500 more across the UK). They have more than 60 airlines flying to over 220 destinations and the recent approval to construct a second runway will create a further 14,000 jobs and generate £1bn a year in economic benefits. The airport also has a large outreach programme, since 2021 engaging with over 600,000 students encouraging involvement in STEM subjects and environmental sustainability. The last part of the day was to be taken airside and driven round the airfield seeing the many operations undertaken by the Gatwick Airport Team. We also saw fire crews testing out new breathing apparatus in a smoke filled test plane which rounded off a great day out for our posse.”

With ‘maintaining law and order’ being one of the High Sheriff’s responsibilities. Peter has also visited Surrey’s Prisons and seen for himself the challenges the prison services face as well as the successful initiatives that help in the process of rehabilitation. Most recently he and Suzanne were invited to the festival of Christmas Carols at HMP High Down Chapel.

“For many prisoners Christmas can be a particularly painful season, stirring memories of family, childhood and past choices. The carol service and the act of singing helps to uplift the heart and singing together breaks down barriers. We were led by a choir and musicians formed of prisoners that are coached weekly by Liberty Choir, a national charity dedicated to the rehabilitation of prisoners. Another charity – 2makeit, provides opportunities for creative expression including music, art and writing. During the service a group of prisoners performed A Londinium Nativity which had been written by Canon Reverend Egerton Ghonda. We were delighted to attend this positive and memorable festive event”

All of the High Sheriff’s blogs, detailing his visits around the County and featuring a large number of charities and volunteer led organisations are published, with photos, in the news section of the website (www.highsheriffofsurrey.com/news) – you will see there that one of the most important aspects of the High Sheriffs role these days really is shining a light on those who give their time to good causes and make people aware of the charities who so need public support, especially in the current economic climate. Surrey is a county that excels in this area and one thing I always hear as the part of their support team at the end of every High Sheriffs term is that meeting people who make a difference in Surrey is the best element of the role – and more than once that is followed by “Thank goodness we don’t have to collect taxes these days” .