Tom Shebbeare
Funnily enough I’d just seen Tom’s picture in Expression, the Exeter University alumni magazine. He’s been given an honorary doctorate; he joked that this was just a fundraising manoeuvre by the university of which he, like me, is a graduate. He asked me when I’d graduated.
‘1969,’ I said.
He said he’d graduated in 1973 and then, ‘You’re much better preserved than I am!’
It seems that Tom had served on some committee for the Vice Chancellor of Exeter, whose work amounted to having lunch now and again. When the uni had decided to restructure they wrote asking him to donate if he wanted to stay on he committee. He wrote telling them that he was a generous donor to charity, giving X% of his income, but saying the university was not on the list. This letter crossed with a letter from the university inviting him to accept an honorary doctorate of laws. He reckoned it was because they were short of people to address graduation ceremonies, which he will do in Exeter next week. His one joke (and that was contributed by a friend) was to advise the graduates never to take a job that required the wearing of a hat . That would rule out working at the deli counter in Waitrose or the armed forces. And being Archbishop of Canterbury.
‘Do you have to wear a hat?’ he asked.
‘No,’ I said. ‘We don’t wear hats.’ He thought he would extend his advice against jobs with hats by saying that the Baha’is are sensible people and don’t wear hats.
Tom’s left off being the Director of the Prince’s Trust. He’d done that for 16 years and, at the end, was in charge of 800 people. He’s now the ‘obergruppenf00fc;hrer’ (to use Tom’s word) of The Prince’s Charities - a kind of paid Executive Chairman with a strategic co-ordinating role for the whole group of trusts and charities. He also has a 00a3;3m r&d budget to dream new ideas for HRH to launch!
He asked me if I’d got a knighthood (like Iqbal Sacranie and Jonathan Sacks - and like Tom himself). Not me, I said. I’d heard that Jonathan Sacks had really wanted a peerage, and we considered how those who dole out knighthoods and peerages would have to make very careful calculations when giving these things to religious leaders. They would have to ensure that no one felt that someone else had had a bigger present than they had.
I have to say I have wondered whether I would like to get an honour of some kind. I wouldn’t mind an OBE. I think an MBE would be rather demeaning, but a knighthood would be fun. I wouldn’t mind being Sir John Leith (I don’t think I’d be the first Sir John in the Leith family) or Sir Barnabas Leith. Or perhaps it would be more demotic to be Sir Barney Leith.
I can dream, can’t I?
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, inter-faith, interfaith, politics, Prince of Wales, religion
July 9, 2005 No Comments
House-hunting in Herts
Erica and I took the day out to hunt for houses in Herts. And a grey, overcast and drizzly day it was too, but perhaps it’s better to see properties in less than ideal weather conditions - sun can make even the most unpromising house look good.
We actually liked the very first house we saw, in the village of Digswell, just north of Welwyn Garden City. The great advantage of Digswell is that it has a station on the Great Northern Line into Kings Cross and that would get me onto the Piccadilly Line to Knightsbridge, the closest Tube station to the National Baha’i Centre in Rutland Gate. As it happens, Digswell is a rather nice dormitory village which also has a village life. There’s an interesting Character Appraisal of Digswell on the Welwyn Hatfield District Council website.
Not going to say what house we’re looking at. Don’t want everyone rushing there and outbidding us.
We looked at one other house in Digswell. We couldn’t make up our minds whether it was a 1930s or a 1950s house, but whatever the date the house would have needed a lot of work doing to it. In any case, the house was low-lying and hard on a fairly busy road. So, not that one! We called the estate agent and told them not to both to come and show us around the house, as we had previously arranged with them.
We moved on to Hatfield. Sorry, can’t say I like Hatfield; and when you talk to people in Hertfordshire and mention Hatfield, there’s an almost universal wrinkling up of noses. We took at a look at the outside of what seemed to be quite a substantial house - might even have suited us - but there was an almost impossible network of streets to be navigated before we found the house (thank goodness for the sat nav in the car!) and the surrounding housing estates were not of the best. Also took a gawp at a couple more houses in a much nicer part of Hatfield. Both were similar in design and size, but the first one had been extended and had five bedrooms, three of them with en suite bathrooms. Good houses, but not what Erica and I like - which tends to be rather quirky houses and houses that feel open inside. I really dislike houses where the rooms (especially on the ground floor) don’t feel connected to each other.
We picked Hari up from the uni in Hatfield and took her to see the first house we’d seen. She liked it too, so we called up the estate agents and made an offer.
Everything now depends on our getting an offer for our house in Abingdon.
July 9, 2005 No Comments
