Honorary Graduates

Orations and responses

Lord Braybrooke

Oration given on 13 July 2000

Chancellor, the Senate of the University has resolved that the degree of Doctor of the University be conferred upon Lord Braybrooke.

That Lord Braybrooke was born to privilege there can be no doubt. Tenth Baron (the title was created in 1788); educated at Eton and Magdelene College, Cambridge (of which he is the Hereditary Visitor) and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester; patron of three livings; farmer and landowner; Lord Lieutenant of the County of Essex - one could scarcely imagine a more traditional profile.

Far from everyone in such happy circumstances observes the conventions of noblesse oblige, a term that means “Rank has its obligations.”  In other words, those upon whom good fortune is bestowed should recognise that they also have a duty to serve their fellow citizens; for, as the seventeenth century English dramatist, John Fletcher, put it: “ ‘Tis virtue and not birth that makes us noble.”

Lord Braybrooke makes an enormous contribution to the community life of Essex, both in fulfilling the rituals that are associated with the Lieutenancy, and in his encouragement and support for a wide range of civic and community organisations.

Lord Braybrooke’s ancestral home is Audley End, that magnificent country palace near Saffron Walden that some time ago was passed to English Heritage.  Today, Lord Braybrooke lives close by in what was the Dower House.  Apart from National Service in the army (such as all young men of his generation were obliged to undergo) -  he served in Kenya and Malaya - he has spent the whole of his professional and public life in Essex and East Anglia.  A Director of the Essex and Suffolk Insurance Company until its amalgamation with Guardian Royal Exchange, he served on Saffron Walden Rural District Council from 1959 to 1969, and then for another decade represented Stansted on Essex County Council.  A member of the Agricultural Land Tribunal, Eastern Area, since 1975, he was also Chairman of the Rural Development Commission for Essex from 1984 to 1990.

Admirable though these activities are, those who know Lord Braybrooke well all agree that it was when he became Lord Lieutenant of Essex in 1992 that he really came into his own. In his response to this oration Lord Braybrooke may himself tell us something about the duties of the Lord Lieutenant, but amongst them one in particular stands out: participation in civic and social activity within the Lieutenancy, including encouragement of a wide range of voluntary activity.

Lieutenancies have always been closely associated with the Crown.  It was Henry VIII who first established the office and conferred upon it a military type role, in that the holder was made responsible for the maintenance of order within the County.  Today, there are residual links with the Territorial Army and the magistracy, together with strong ceremonial links with the Monarch and the Royal Family.  But the greatest public good undoubtedly derives from the Lord Lieutenant’s activities in the civic and social realm.

A typical week for Lord Braybrooke might include chairing the Annual General Meeting of the association Friends of Historic Essex; attending a meeting to raise funds for a voluntary organisation such as, to take a recent example, In Focus, which helps families with disabled children, bringing them together and encouraging self-help as much as possible.  This is not, incidentally, a form of old fashioned “do gooding”, but rather that of giving the disadvantaged more power to help themselves.  In the same week, there could be a meeting of magistrates to chair, or a civic service at Rowhedge to attend.

Fund raising occupies a central place in Lord Braybrooke’s activities, particularly with respect to pump priming.  For example, over and above moneys received from the state, the St Clare Hospice in Essex has annual costs of some three hundred thousand pounds, all of which have to be raised by voluntary activity.  Similarly, in Colchester a few years ago he was instrumental in setting up a local support organisation for NCH, the National Children’s Home. In other words, he it is who often provides the initial impulse to get things going.

Lord Braybrooke is a popular Lord Lieutenant; he is, in the best sense of the term, a populist Lord Lieutenant.  Kindly and friendly and with a ready sense of humour, he manages to combine dignity and warmth.  They say that in his teens he was a bit of a lad - a lifelong railway enthusiast, at the age of sixteen he managed to wangle his way onto the foot plate of the steam driven Liverpool Street to Norwich express (it may be this incident that has given rise to the story - possibly apocryphal - that he is a member of ASLEF, the railway workers’ union).

All of us, in one way or another, are, consciously or unconsciously, linked to the state. When we pay our taxes or submit to the law, or serve on a jury or purchase a motor car licence it is a manifestation of the fact that we are subjects of the state.  But if those are the “vertical” linkages that connect us to the state, what about the “horizontal” ones ?  Societies where all or most of the connections between the individual and the state are vertical tend to be totalitarian and oppressive. But where there is an abundance of horizontal connections independent of the state and entered into voluntarily, civil society tends to be democratic and healthy.

It is doubtful that there is another country in the world that has so many voluntary organisations as we do here in Britain.  There must be few of us who do not belong to a sports organisation, a church, a trade union, a political party, a hobby or recreational organisation.  Whether it is one involving political or pressure group activity, playing a sport, collecting stamps, listening to music, running a youth club or defending the environment, virtually all of us are likely to be engaged in one or more such activities.  And the crucial point is that these activities are run by ourselves, quite independently of the state.  It is in this that much of our civic well being consists and it is something we cherish.

Prominent amongst these “horizontal” organisations are the numerous voluntary associations that centre upon members of our society who, through no fault of their own, have special needs.  There will always be some things that the state cannot do, or which are perhaps better done by members of the public themselves. It is in this realm that Lord Braybrooke, since becoming Lord Lieutenant of Essex, has concentrated his efforts and exercised his considerable prestige and influence.

As we enter the twenty first century, numerous traditional institutions are under review, the Lord Lieutenancy amongst them.  It is too soon to predict the outcome, but of one thing we can be certain: it is that so long as he is Lord Lieutenant of the County, Lord Braybrooke will continue to play a distinguished role in the civic and social life of Essex, and for this we are grateful.

Chancellor, I present to you Robin Henry Charles Neville, Lord Braybrooke.