The Old Elizabethan Association

As part of the OEA’s annual programme of events, this year we ended the season with a speaker lunch. We invited Sir John Foley, KCB, OBE, MC, DL, the last Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, to be our guest speaker, and he and Lady Foley travelled to the island especially for the occasion.

Sir John’s subject was “The Role of the Special Forces, Past, Present and Future”. Sir John’s military career was meteoric, from ordinary soldier to Director of the SAS then Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong and finally Director of General Intelligence, sitting on the Joint Intelligence Committee. There could have been no-one better placed to deliver this talk.

He spoke of the history of the Regiment, from its inception in North Africa during World War II under David Stirling, through deployments in Borneo, Aden, Cyprus and Oman, then the Falklands and the Gulf War. He explained the demands on the Regiment now and took a look into the future, considering the roles which may be expected of Britain’s elite regiment. Sir John was kind enough to answer questions at the end of his talk.

The guests were enthralled and enlightened and everyone seemed to have a very pleasant Saturday. We were delighted that we had a full house of both members and non-members at the excellent Farmhouse Hotel and Restaurant in St Saviour.

We were most grateful to The Heritage Group for their sponsorship of the event.

Proceeds from the lunch were donated to the Elizabeth College Foundation Appeal.

See pictures of the event.

We hope to include a similar event in our programme for next year.