As one year is followed by the next, I appreciate good people doing good things. They always have and they always will. Most people do more than satisfy curiosity about why life is the way it is; they put in positive efforts to make a difference.
Virginia and I look forward to 2024, remembering those we admired over the years, over decades. In the Worthing West constituency, we recall the living and the dead. One year, calling on homes in Kingston Gorse, near East Preston, Sir Martin Farndale, Master Gunner, reminisced about the Royal Artillery at Woolwich near the old Royal Military Academy. He remembered my first visit to NATO headquarters.
Virginia’s military friend was General Sir Edward Burgess. He was a commanding officer whose visits were warmly welcomed by troops. One report said: ‘his enthusiasm and ebullience were infectious; soldiers were invigorated by meeting him.’
When I asked him about commercial life after retirement, he replied that he had been looked after by comrades during working life, so he would give back by serving the Royal British Legion (RBL) for six years, followed by the Commonwealth Ex-Services League for another seven.
With the RBL, he gained Indian government permission to cross the sensitive frontier to travel with war widows to Kohima and Imphal where the unforgotten 14th Army in 1944 blocked the Japanese attack on India in fighting as tough as anywhere. Ted and Jean Burgess talked of the emotions of the widows. They thanked the Naga people who supported the Allies at great cost.
Findon, with Clapham, Patching, Poling and Angmering, will become part of the revised Worthing West constituency at the next general election. We called there last weekend on Margaret Bamford who has been involved in helping and advising most of the good causes in West Sussex. We remember with affection and admiration her husband.
Terry, like Virginia, held the LSE’s Social Administration qualification. After the probation service, he helped lead the British Association of Social Workers. He was Director of Social Services in Northern Ireland during my time as a minister. His ‘Contemporary History of Social Work’ is an important account of a vital contemporary public service. Terry had been Liberal.
Margaret kindly gave me Findon News, the community newsletter for the combined churches. She also provided the book ‘Can Parliament Take Back Control?’ by former Liberal Democrat colleagues Nick Harvey and Paul Tyler. It includes the 1976 Richard Dimbleby lecture on Elective Dictatorship by Lord Hailsham. Nearly 50 years ago, he thought near absolute power was held by the government within the governing party. What Quintin Hogg declared then has not always been right. It was not the experience of James Callaghan and some succeeding prime ministers.
We visited two of my former agents. Mary Lermitte was positively involved when I had the opportunity to stand for election in the newly created Worthing West constituency. Her advice has been good, her example has been outstanding and her public service went far beyond our preferred political party. She thought nothing of bicycling to Rustington and back to Worthing after a meeting.
Tom Wye succeeded her. He showed by example how to work. I never heard him say an unkind word about anybody. He was always the first to step in to help when someone faced emergency needs. He could move fast. I could hardly keep up when he was raising money for a charity, marching along the coast from Rustington to the Half Brick beyond the Aquarena.
These people inspire me to look on the bright side. I resolve to get more things right, to repeat fewer errors and to ask constituents to join in helping. I will be knocking at doors near you. Do let me know if you can volunteer to help make lives better.
