Trustees

Foreword

by Rhidian Jones, Chairman

In the Summer of 1998 I was contacted with an intriguing proposition. The University of Leeds, whose Brotherton Library held the world renowned Liddle Collection of approximately 6,000 WWI lives and 1,200 WWII lives, was ceasing actively to collect material as a result of financial constraints. With those having personal experience of the Second World War advancing in years the need to ensure their memories and personal memorabilia were captured for posterity was urgent. Otherwise so much of value to future generations would be consigned to black bags as houses were cleared. When his duties with the university were over there was also the prospect of securing the involvement of Dr Peter Liddle, the founder of the Liddle Collection, to assist in achieving the concept of a centre to preserve personal experience of WWII. I was naturally delighted to be one of the three founder trustees and help to get the Second World War Experience Centre established and registered as a charity, following which it has progressed to the hard won status of a Registered Museum.

From the outset the idea was that the Centre would be comprehensive and cover servicemen and women, civilians and conscientious objectors, and be international in scope. I am delighted to report that eight years on the Centre’s archive comprises approaching 8,000 lives, more than the original Liddle Collection, at a cost of under £100 per life, and is regularly used by authors, researchers, students and the media as a source of relevant and fresh material on WWII.

Of course, that has not been achieved without the hard work and support of many people, the Centre’s sponsors and donors, honorary fellows, patrons, trustees and staff, and, above all the many committed volunteers without whom our task would have been an uphill struggle.

I am pleased to have been invited to chair the Centre’s Board of Trustees at this juncture and to lead it to its next stage of development, and would like to pay tribute to my predecessors in office, but before so doing would like to share with you some background to my personal passion for the Second World War and the importance of its lessons for the future.

I was born on 13 July 1943 which is arguably the precise tipping point in the war’s progress, although, lying in my cot under a Morrison shelter in the Lady Aberdare Nursing Home in Mountain Ash in the South Wales valleys, I was clearly unaware of what momentous events were taking place.

Whilst I therefore have no personal memories of WWII it shaped my early life. Rationing was re-imposed after the war as a direct result of financial stringency caused by it, and, if anything, the austerity that resulted was even more difficult to bear in one of the “victorious nations”. The reading matter of my early teens was the popular autobiographical literature of airmen, escapers, frogmen, saboteurs, submariners and soldiers, and when I first wore battledress in my school cadet corps in the mid Fifties, the weapons, equipment and infantry tactics taught on dusty sand tables would have been familiar to any Normandy veteran, especially when demonstrated by teachers whose chests were colourfully adorned with the ribbons of WWII campaign medals.

My interest was not, however, driven solely by hero worship of servicemen, the signs of civilian hardship were all around me, bomb sites and Anderson shelters in back gardens, and my biggest WWII hero was, in fact, in a reserved occupation, but nevertheless made a huge personal contribution to the victory and died tragically early as a result of his efforts. A brilliant production engineer, whose skills were demonstrated to me when he made toys for his son and I in his backyard workshop in the West Midlands where I then lived, Bill Haynes had an amazing story. In order to maintain production of munitions he slept every night throughout the war on a camp bed in the corner of his office, when not sheltering from an air raid. (His home life was also marred by his wife losing her much loved brother who went down with the Prince of Wales in 1941). This broke his health and, although he received no medals, his war service was as crucial as that of any serviceman, and his early death was assuredly that of a war victim.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, I am an enthusiastic supporter of the breadth of the Centre’s mission, and ever relevant lessons of comradeship, co-operation, commitment, principle, service, loyalty, endurance, courage and sacrifice, which I will continue to advance to the best of my ability as its current Chairman. In that capacity I must pay tribute to my two predecessors who have built such a solid foundation. Graham Stow was the founder Chairman until resigning to devote himself to his year as Chairman of the Building Societies’ Association in 2002. After that term of office he re-joined the board of trustees but has now resigned to take office as High Sheriff of Staffordshire. We are sorry to lose him but extend him every good wish with gratitude for his energetic leadership at the outset and wise counsel thereafter, which I am pleased the Centre’s trustees have recognized by awarding him an honorary fellowship. Graham handed over to George Kieffer who has given the Centre four years of committed service during which the Centre has made considerable progress in all areas. George is now stepping down to enable him to devote more time to his other pressing interests, not least The Worshipful Company of Turners, where he is the current Upper Warden and I shall be pleased to be able to support him on the Court. We are very grateful to him for all his efforts on the Centre’s behalf, and delighted that he is continuing as a trustee of the Centre which will enable us to benefit from his advice and support.

Colleagues and friends, I will do my best, and I know I can rely on the support of each of you, particularly as we work to extend the educational aspect of the Centre’s activities, shape the organisation to meet the inevitable change in emphasis from collecting to communicating our treasures, and continue to raise funds to secure its long term future.

Rhidian Jones

Rhidian Jones MA, FCIS, FCMI - Chairman

Rhidian is a former Territorial Army Officer with a lifelong interest in war history. Accordingly, he was delighted to be asked to use his skill-set as lawyer and charity trustee to help establish the Centre in 1998, when he became one of the three founder trustees. Since then he has worked actively as a trustee and the Centre’s honorary legal adviser to aid the Centre’s development. Before his retirement from full-time legal practice in 2002, Rhidian headed the Corporate Department in a major City Law Firm and continues to work as a legal consultant, non-executive Director and Trustee of various organisations. He combines legal expertise with business experience, having spent ten years in management before qualifying as a solicitor, and was appointed Chairman of the Centre’s Board of Trustees in 2007.

Roger Henton FCA - Deputy Chairman

Roger was born on 2 August 1940, at the epicentre of the battle of Britain. He is thus mindful that “never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few” and is grateful to have the opportunity to repay that debt in minute part through his trusteeship. His earliest memory of any is of sheltering under the staircase with mother and sister, to the accompaniment of air raid sirens. Father, meantime, was manning a searchlight aimed at German aircraft unloading surplus bombs on Lincoln’s airfields on their way home, having failed to drop them onto Midlands munitions factories. He forewent early inclinations to follow in the footsteps of a German prisoner of war to be seen driving a tractor in a field at the bottom of his garden and, instead, following an education at Bedford School, became a Chartered Accountant. After a spell managing the office of a Big Six firm in Geneva, he retuned to the UK and worked in industry for several years, before setting up in practice in Leeds. He brings to the Centre his experience of over 100 company directorships, some of listed companies, and four practice partnerships. He enjoys travel, reading, sports and red wine.

Robert Fleming – Company Director

Educated at Carlton Grammar school, Bradford; Robert joined the RAF as an airman in 1974. Trained as a Registered nurse and Clinical Teacher, he retired as Flight Lieutenant in 1985 following service home and overseas including the Falklands in 1982.
As Trustee he hopes to assist the Centre in making the collection and resources available to a much wider audience, helping to realise its educational value and increasing his own awareness of the Second World War in the process. Although his lifetime passion is very much linked – a pilot, he is involved in restoration and operation of mainly historic aircraft, including the WWII Spitfire, Hurricane, Buchon (Me109), Harvard and several important examples of civilian and late WWI types. The current or past members of the ‘Real Aeroplane Company’ fleet are often seen in public displays, operated from Breighton airfield in Yorkshire.
Robert, now a Non-Exec Director of a successful plc technology company he helped found 25 years ago, remains active in property development, the care industry, aviation and high tech companies and is a board member of Bradford Centre Regeneration (URC).

Lindsay Fraser BA

Lindsay works in the Asset Management sector of Pagan Osborne Group in St Andrews where she manages investment portfolios for a wide range of individuals, trusts and charities. Lindsay studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Brasenose College, Oxford and then went into fund management in London where she worked for 12 years before moving up to Edinburgh in 1993 to join Martin Currie Private Clients where she worked before moving to Pagan Osborne in 2003. She enjoys travelling, reading and music and is slowly building up her knowledge of military history through her involvement with the Centre.

George C Kieffer BA FRAeS MIL ACIB MCMI

George served for 14 years part-time in the Royal Observer Corps, No 11 Group, RAF Strike Command. After working in the City in Corporate Banking and Finance, latterly as Controller Corporate Banking for Standard Chartered Bank, he went into Commerce, becoming Deputy Chairman and Head of European Operations of Sega Enterprises Ltd of Japan. Since 1995 he has been an independent company director of a number of companies, both in the UK and overseas, and consultant with significant involvement in the aerospace and defence industries. George is Deputy Chairman of the East of England Development Agency, one of the Regional Development Agencies set up by Government, a director of East of England International, the official regional inward investment and international trade agency, of the Harwich Haven Authority and the Essex Development and Regeneration Agency. He is a linguist with a keen interest in history and writes for a number of magazines, including the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies. In 1993-4 he worked on a 10-hour television series "Russia's War - Blood Upon the Snow", the definitive documentary of the Great Patriotic War. He is a Freeman of the City of London, a Liveryman and Member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Turners and holds the ROC long-service medal, as well as the order of Chevalier de la Couronne de Chêne of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.

Graeme Rimer

As Head of Collections at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, Graeme directs the operations of the Curatorial, Conservation, Registar and Museum Technician Departments. Graeme joined the Royal Armouries (then the Armouries of the Tower of London) in 1975 as a Museum Assistant, having formerly trained as a Conservator and worked for the Arms & Armour Department of the Wallace Collection, London. After promotion to Research Assistant, he was appointed Keeper of Firearms in 1988 and in 1990, he was invited to head a new Weapons Department, combining the two departments of Firearms and edged weapons. He was Editor of the Journal of the Arms & Armour Society from 1982 to 1986 and has published a number of articles, exhibition catalogues etc. relating to various aspects of Arms and Armour. He is currently Chairman of the Museums Weapons Group and of the Leeds Museums Collections Group. Graeme was appointed as the Centre's Curatorial Advisor in 2002 and joined the Board of Trustees in January 2003.

Ian R. Smith MA, MBA

As Group Commercial Director for Exel plc, a FTSE 100 company, Ian has line management responsibility for the Mail and Express Division, and has Group responsibility for Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Sales & Marketing, and E-Commerce. He is a member of the Executive Board. Prior to joining Exel plc, he worked for the Royal Dutch / Shell Group of companies for nearly ten years, five of which were in the Middle East. He also worked for over 10 years for Monitor Company, a leading strategy consulting firm. Ian has an honours degree of Master of Arts from Oxford University. He studied for a PhD at Hull University and he received his MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated with honours and distinction. Ian has had a life-long interest in history and a particular interest in the Second World War. He has written a book on his father's war experiences - an R.A.F. Navigator in Bomber Command who operated from the U.K. and from North Africa. A copy of these recollections is now held at the Centre.

Major-General Henry Woods CB, MBE, MC, DL, DLitt, MA, FRSA

combines military experience going back to the Second World War with strong educational interests. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, where he gained a First class degree in History. Commissioned in the 5th Dragoon Guards (on which he has written a book), he served with distinction from 1944-5 and post-war in Korea and Egypt. Later he commanded the Royal Armoured Corps Centre in Dorset and was GOC North-East District. Since leaving the service in 1980, he started and ran the West Yorkshire Science and Technology Regional Organisation until 1987, when he became Director of the St. William's Foundation in York, from which he retired recently and of which he is Vice-President.