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Role

 

Role of the Lord-Lieutenant

Mr Edward Gillespie OBE DL is His Majesty's The King’s representative in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, fulfilling a range of civic and ceremonial duties which bring together voluntary services, business and cultural life.

The office of Lord-Lieutenant is military in origin and can be said to date from the reign of Henry VIII, when its holder was made responsible for the maintenance of order and for all military measures necessary locally for defence.

Traditional links with the armed forces have been preserved in a modern form by association of the Lord-Lieutenant with the Volunteer Reserve Forces.  The Lord-Lieutenants’ connections with uniformed organisations have led to links with other uniformed organisations, such as the police, fire and ambulance services and many voluntary bodies, such as the Red Cross, the cadet forces and other national and local youth organisations.

In recent years, the circles within which the Lord-Lieutenant’s leadership role is exercised have come to include a wide range of matters, civil and defence, professional and voluntary.

The fundamental principle concerning the office of the Lord-Lieutenant is that they are His Majesty’s representative in his county. Consequently, it is their first and foremost duty to uphold the dignity of the Crown.

In general, the Lord-Lieutenant promotes a good atmosphere and a spirit of co-operation by the encouragement they give to voluntary service, and to benevolent organisations, and by the interest they take in the business, industrial and social life of their county and the voluntary activity that goes on in it.

The role is essentially non-political.

While it is a matter for each Lord-Lieutenant as to how they carry out their role within the principles identified above, these duties may broadly be classified under the following headings: -

  1. To promote and programme visits by members of the Royal Family and to escort Royal visitors;
  2. To be the representative of His Majesty The King in liaison with the Armed Forces, on Civic occasions and with Business, presenting certain Honours, Medals and Awards;
  3. To promote His Majesty's Awards for Personal Honour, The King’s Award for Voluntary Service, which the Lieutenancy assess, King's Awards for Enterprise and Buckingham Palace Garden Parties;
  4. To promote Armed Forces Cadet Forces and other Uniformed Youth Organisations;
  5. To represent His Majesty at Citizenship Ceremonies that are held each month in Gloucester and, for South Gloucestershire, at Kingswood; 
  6. To be involved in the Advisory Committee work of the Ministry of Justice and to support the Constabulary.