Sep 2012 Principal Speaker - General Sir Mike Jackson, attending Cambridge Club Charter Dinner

A delicious, entertaining and thought-provoking evening was had by the 21 members and guests that attended from our club. The lovely panelled ballroom was a elegant setting for the more than 100 rotarians, guests and speakers. We all felt very welcome and delighted to be included in such a well organised and relaxed evening. The knowledgable and erudite speakers talked about their first hand experiences of the most war torn parts of the world and the attempts of various military, humanitarian and political groups to bring stability and ultimately peace over the last 25 years or so. They agreed that there was no simple, one size fits all solution, despite what the newspapers might try and imply. Infact each country has its own tensions and bias and any intervention is very complex and time consuming. 'The strong hand in a velvet glove' often seemed to be the most successful approach.

Main speaker General Sir Mike Jackson served as Chief of the General Staff (CGS) from 2003 2006, the culmination of four decades in the British Army. He previously served as Commander in Chief Land Command (from 2000), Commander Kosovo Force (in 1999), Commander ACE Rapid Reaction Corps (from 1997) and Director General Development and Doctrine at the MoD.

His active service included command at company and brigade level in Northern Ireland, divisional command in Bosnia, and corps commander in Macedonia and Kosovo.

He is now Senior Advisor at PA Consulting Group and has other consulting roles. He is a trenchant and authoritative commentator on military and other issues. He draws on a wealth of unique experience, combining sharp-end military action and the heavy responsibility of many life-and-death policy and command decisions.

Other Special  Guests :

        Councillor Sheila Stuart - Mayor of Cambridge

        The Right Reverend David Thomson - Bishop of  Huntingdon

        Trevor Sayer - Governor of Rotary District 1080

         Bill Redmayne  - Governor Elect of Rotary District 1080

        Gillian Johnson  - President of  The Inner Wheel Club of Cambridge

        Ana Zavala Guillen from Argentina - the Rotary Peace Fellow at Bradford University

        The Presidents of the other three local Rotary Clubs -

                                    South Cambridge -  Mike Smith:     

                                    Cambridge Rutherford  - Paul Breen

                                    Sawston District -  Simon Lake

        Debate leaders -

            Edward Chaplin - former British Ambassador to Jordan, Iraq and Italy

            Mohammad Razai - born in Afganistan, escaped when 15yrs old, now a medical student at Cambridge University who works to raise awareness of asylum seeker issues.

         John Grieve (PP) - Chair the discussions

         Rosemary Turner (PP) - Master of Ceremonies.