Honorary Graduates
Orations and responses
Response by Lord Braybrooke
Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, High Sheriff, members of the congregation,
ladies and gentleman. I would just like to mention to Peter Frank that
I am not a member of ASLEF, nor the Mothers’ Union ! I am
greatly honoured by your kindness in granting me an honorary degree at Essex
University. I shall be very proud of it, particularly as my own university
career at Cambridge was far from distinguished. I paraded before my
tutor; a lovely man called Frank Salter, in October 1952. Frank had
taught my father before the First World War so he was no spring chicken and
I asked him if I could read engineering. He told me that was out of
the question, because of our family’s relationship with Magdalene, I
had to learn something about the college and therefore I had to read
History.
I duly did this on a fairly light throttle and though I managed to get my
honours degree it was not a first. My studies were not helped by the fact
that Magdalene was very short of oarsmen. Hence I had to row in the first
boat every weekday, including Saturdays in the afternoon for three years.
In 1952 90% of us of course had done our national service which was
obviously mighty good for us. Those of us who had seen action in Korea and
Malaya regarded Cambridge as utter bliss. We described it as as good as
the army but without the responsibility.
After a year or more fighting in the jungle with the Third Battalion the
King’s African Rifles, three fellow second lieutenants and myself duly paraded
into our Battalion headquarters on Temerloh railway station in Pahang in Central
Malaya, to be dined out, and it was quite a night, before sailing home. At
about two in the morning someone said “Robin you’re the only chap who
knows how to drive steam engines, why don’t we get the armoured train out and
potter up and down the main line and make a bit of a noise in the jungle ?”
But there were two problems. One was to keep our Colonel asleep, he
at the time fortunately had dysentery, (well we all had dysentery from time to
time in the jungle), so the medical officer gave him a little injection.
The second problem was more serious in that we had to get the key for the points
from the stationmaster. Without the key to the points of course we couldn’t get
the armoured train onto the main line. Our medical officer found the
station master sound asleep and carefully gave him a small injection to make
sure that he too had a good rest. I soon had about ten fully inebriated
fellow officers on the foot plate and we steamed up and down the east coast main
line which was a single track, loosing off every form of bombardment into the
jungle, grenades, bren guns, mortars the lot. I suppose I must have known
the timing of other trains on the line that night because we never ran into
anything.
Now I have finished with trivial pursuits may I briefly tell you something
about the Lieutenancy. It is of course an honorary position. There
are 97 Lord Lieutenants in Great Britain including Northern Ireland. The
Lord Lieutenant is the personal representative of Her Majesty the Queen and must
follow her example by promoting a good atmosphere and a spirit of co-operation
throughout the whole county. Obviously he or she should at all times
exercise tact and forbearance. One of the great joys of being Lord
Lieutenant is that one meets so many marvellous people whose unselfish efforts
achieve so much throughout the county.
The office of Lord Lieutenant is military in origin and dates from the reign
of Henry VIII when its holder was made responsible for the maintenance of order
and for all military measures necessary for local defence. In 1569
provision was made for the appointment of deputies and in Essex we now have 65
Deputy Lieutenants. It was not until 1921 that the Lord Lieutenant finally
lost the power to call upon all able bodied men of his county to fight in case
of need. Lord Lieutenants is much involved in many organisations and
charities in the county. The Lord Lieutenant usually holds the office of
Keeper of the Rolls, formally custos rotulorum, he is the Chief Magistrate in
the county. He is also much involved in armed and reserved forces, the
legal profession, including the appointment of magistrates. He organises
royal visits and if anything goes wrong he ‘carries the can’. We are
exceptionally lucky in Essex to have enormous support from the County Council,
possibly greater than in any other county. For instance, I am driven to my
engagements which makes life much easier as it would be difficult to park my car
in full dress uniform with a sword dangling about my person. We also have
two ladies in County Hall who do an immense amount of work on the legal side.
However, we have recently read in the papers that our leader apparently has
plans in the wind, both for the Lieutenancy and the office of High Sheriff
amongst other of our ancient institutions. Perhaps after a holiday Tuscany
we may have some news.
Finally I am always delighted to come to the University of Essex, which
is obviously blossoming under our present Vice Chancellor and I sure it will
continue to flourish in the future. Thank you again for the great honour
you have bestowed upon me.