Dinner - Speaker is Jeanna Swan, Lord Lieutenant, intro by Ronnie N

The members of The Rotary Club of Duns were honoured to welcome Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for Berwickshire as their guest speaker at last week’s meeting.  Mrs Jeanna Swan was warmly received and gave a very well informed and interesting talk on her work is our Lord Lieutenant.   After affirming that her role was no longer to raise the local Militia, she shared a little of the appointment process for herself and her 10 Deputy Lieutenants.

The duties of the Lord Lieutenant really fall under three main headings.  The first of these is to meet, greet and introduce members of the Royal family when they visit Berwickshire on official duties, and alongside this to be involved in suggesting suitable events and locations for such visits. Secondly, Mrs Swan is involved in recognising and rewarding local achievement by recommending individuals or organisations for the whole range of awards which are included in the Honours Lists from time to time. The third aspect of the duties is to support, encourage and promote the values of our society, the Armed Services, the religious bodies and all those who enhance our quality of life. Mrs Swan made particular mention of the support of her Lord Lieutenant's Cadet, Ben Williams.

In all of these duties, our Lord Lieutenant looks to us all to make suggestions for royal visits, special events, individuals deserving of awards and ways in which she can fulfil her duties.  Next June will mark The Queen’s 90th Birthday, with her Official Birthday on 12th June. It may be that we should be looking at holding a special event such as a street party to mirror the The Patron’s Lunch which is being planned for 10,000 people in The Mall.

Mrs Swan then rounded off her talk with a couple of amusing tales of her time as one of our local vets, before being thanked in an appropriate  fashion