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Surrey
County News
2010/2011
 The tide of activity and commitments to which I referred in my piece in the last edition of the High Sheriff continued unabated, with this half-year having the bookends of the service for the Judiciary in October and the Declaration of my successor in April. The Service for the Judiciary was probably the event that caused my PA and myself the most anxiety as there seemed so many elements to combine – a procession from the Guildhall to the Church, the Church Service itself at Holy Trinity Guildford, a procession back to the Guildhall, a reception there and finally a lunch for a smaller group at a restaurant down by the river. In the event, the sun shone and everything went off splendidly. As the congregation and choir raised their voices in our first hymn, ‘God is Love: let Heaven adore Him’, to the rousing tune of Blaenwern, I felt I could relax. We also included four trumpeters who blew fanfares at every opportunity and led to the Rector of Holy Trinity heading his parish article on the event “You can’t have too many trumpeters”.
There have been a lot of civic events, including an interesting outdoor ceremony at Runnymede to launch officially the programme of events leading up to the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. This prompted me to read Magna Carta and to be reminded that the sheriffs feature rather a lot in the text and were clearly not regarded in a particularly good light by the barons. The Sheriff of Surrey at the time, Hubert de Burgh, sided with the King. The day left me with a very strong sense of historical continuity.
I visited five prisons in my second six months including all three of our women’s prisons in the County. In all of them the question was how to manage the public sector financial reductions which were flowing through without impacting on the discretionary programmes that help rehabilitate offenders and reduce re-offending. The impact of reduced public sector funding was a recurrent theme throughout my Year and I have found myself involved in many discussions with those involved in all elements of the judicial system – prisons, courts, magistracy, probation service, youth justice, social services – on how to mitigate the impact.
The issue is the same with the voluntary sector where I have continued to meet so many extraordinary people who have dedicated their time and efforts to help others, often with astonishing results. But their organisations often operate on a shoestring and those involved can end up spending a lot of their time hunting for funds. So it was good that our own High Sheriff’s charity in Surrey, the High Sheriff Youth Awards, could, at least on a small scale, step in and give some support. This charity was set up over twenty years ago and provides grants to organisations which involve young people who want to help reduce or prevent crime in Surrey. Our charity’s strapline is ‘Helping young people make Surrey safer’.
This year we have had a record year, raising almost £60,000 and distributing just over £60,000 in grants. These grants range from support for sports projects as diversionary activities, to youth club equipment, summer camps, youth justice programmes and funding classes on financial literacy. We increased the size of the grants up to a maximum of £2,000 (from £1,000) and also introduced a separate category of grant of up to £3,000 for local organisations, or £5,000 for organisations with County-wide reach, for transition or bridge-funding institutions where the sudden loss of public sector funding has left a gap and where alternative sources of funding have been identified but are not yet in place.
Visiting the various recipients of our grants, presenting them with High Sheriff’s Certificates and seeing and hearing what they are achieving has been one of the highlights of my year and one of the many wonderful memories that I will take away from this year as I hand over to my successor.
Although I tried to prepare myself as well as I could before my year started, I am still amazed by the tide of activity and commitments that have swept me along since the ceremony at Guildford Cathedral on 25th March. That ceremony itself was a change from the precedence of previous years when the High Sheriff’s Declaration took place in County Hall in Kingston upon Thames.
Surrey, uniquely now amongst English counties, has its County Hall outside the County boundaries (Kingston is a London Borough) so it was a positive step to move to Guildford. The event was tied into evensong at the Cathedral and we all felt it was such a success that the cathedral is already booked for my successor’s Declaration next April.
I suppose every High Sheriff expresses amazement at what they find themselves doing and the people they meet. Former High Sheriffs and particularly the Under Sheriffs will be amused at our naivety. But I am finding this an extraordinary year. Surrey does not have regular visits from High Court judges so the traditional involvement of High Sheriffs with the judiciary is perhaps less formalised here than in other counties. However, I have spent time in the Crown Court, in the Magistrates’ Court, in Prisons and with the Police. All have given me new insights and the visits have been totally absorbing. The civic side where my wife and I are attending- on the Borough Mayors’ civic services has introduced us to the ‘Chain Gang’. It is a real pleasure to have met so many interesting individuals for whom the year as Mayor is so often the pinnacle of a long political career. Their knowledge of their boroughs is encyclopaedic.
My involvement with the military has been an unexpected aspect of the year, partly because I had not realised the extent of the military presence or heritage in Surrey and partly because in the current climate the profile of the armed forces is that much higher. A high spot was the opening by HRH Prince William of the new Gym Complex at DMRC Headley Court near Leatherhead, funded by Help for Heroes. It was both inspiring and sobering to talk to the staff and the military personnel who had gone there for rehabilitation, in most cases after suffering major injuries in Afghanistan. I have been back since. On Armed Forces Day, I was out in uniform accompanying the Lord Lieutenant as she inspected cadets as part of the Cadet 150 celebrations, whilst in the evening of the same day I was at Lingfield Racecourse, still in uniform, for a meeting where several races were dedicated to the veterans. I found myself inspecting troops, inspecting horses and giving cups to race winners. Needless to say, my pre-year preparations had not covered any of those activities. And then at RMC Sandhurst, the High Sheriff of the Royal County of Berkshire and I, both in our uniforms, made a joint visit on their Heritage Day as the county boundary runs right through the grounds
 Like most High Sheriffs, I have my theme for the year and mine is about giving support to charities and other bodies which help young people between 14 and 19 stay in education or get into training or employment. I used my High Sheriff’s Garden party which I held at the Merrist Wood campus of Guildford Further and Higher Educational College to highlight this. The college students did themselves and the College proud as on a lovely June evening, they provided the catering to some 300 guests and showed off their skills in animal maintenance and in floristry. We were entertained by Jazz Morley, a very gifted young singer from the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. The other Further Education Colleges in the County as well as various Charities had stalls to show what they could offer to youngsters. We all came away with a strong sense of the commitment these organisations offer to young people.
And at the time of writing, I am only five months in. My diary for September and October is already packed, and I am gearing up for the next major event in the calendar, the Service for the Judiciary. As I wrote earlier, what an extraordinary year this is!
Rob Douglas CBE
High Sheriff of Surrey 2010/2011
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