17-Apr-2017

Lord Ricketts Appointed Chairman

Peter Ricketts, the former British ambassador to France, has been appointed to the Chairmanship of The Normandy Memorial Trust. At a meeting of trustees in London on 28th March, Lord Ricketts said he was delighted to take on the leadership of what he called this “exciting project”.

He paid tribute to the “drive and vision” of Normandy Veteran George Batts, the originator of the plan for the Memorial, who now moves from a place on the board of trustees to the role of “Patron”.

Lord Ricketts brings to the trust his years of experience of dealing at the highest levels with governments in both Britain and France. He was the UK’s ambassador in Paris from 2012 to 2016. Before that he was Britain’s National Security Adviser (2010-2012) and prior to that he was the Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2006-2010).

Three other new trustees were elected to the board: Lord Robin Janvrin, the former Private Secretary to Her Majesty the Queen; General Sir Peter Wall, the former head of the British army and strategic communications specialist, David McDonough.

They join founding trustees Nicholas Witchell and the Curator of the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth,
Andrew Whitmarsh.

Lord Ricketts told trustees that they now had the task of delivering a memorial to “a very high standard on a very tight timescale.”