SIR Simon Boyle KCVO has stepped down from his role as Lord Lieutenant of Gwent after 15 years.

At a busy ceremony held at the Sessions House in Usk last Tuesday, (22nd March) Sir Simon oversaw the declaration of the new High Sheriff and celebrated his birthday at his last official event, pictured bottom right.

He witnessed Andrew Tuggey DL stepping down from the role of High Sheriff, a position Simon had held himself in 1993. Stepping into the High Sheriff of Gwent position is Anthony Clay DL. The pair are pictured top right.

Sir Simon’s role as Lord Lieutenant was to represent The Queen on formal occasions and present medals on her behalf such as the occasional MBE, and BEMs of which he has presented 27 in the three years since the BEM was restored in 2012.

Other presentations he has made have included the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, Queen’s Awards for Voluntary Service, and also Queen’s Awards for long serving officers in the Police and Fire services.

It was his duty to organise any royal visit to Gwent of which there have been 45 in his 15 years in office with 102 different places visited by a Royal Family member.

Despite the high profile royal role he has played in the community, he assures the Beacon it is an unpaid job!

The county of Monmouthshire existed from Henry VIII’s time until 1972, and its first Lord Lieutenant was appointed in 1572 with a continuity of appointments to the office for 400 years.

In 1972 the Welsh counties were given Welsh names and historic Monmouthshire became Gwent, with approximately the same historic boundaries, and the then Lord Lieutenant simply went on with the new county name. In 1996 when five unitary authorities were formed within the preserved county of Gwent, it was rapidly decided that we did not need five Lord Lieutenants.

When asked about the most memorable moments of his term of office, he said that the true highlights were the three visits made to Gwent by the Queen herself.

Sir Simon continued: “The first was to Newport on her 2002 Golden Jubilee tour, then to Ebbw Vale on her Diamond Jubilee tour in 2012, then her last visit to Ystrad Mynach in 2014 to open a factory extension for a company that makes Christmas crackers and wrapping paper under Royal Warrant,” he said.

Leaving Eton College in 1959, Simon Boyle spent six years with Stewarts and Lloyds in Australia and the UK, then after four years with Avon Rubber in Wiltshire he joined British Steel for 31 years, 25 years of which were spent at Llanwern.

Simon was latterly responsible for export sales management for whole Strip Division, which included products from Llanwern, Port Talbot, Shotton, Ebbw Vale and Teesside. During that period Simon was High Sheriff for Gwent in 1993/4 and has been Deputy Lieutenant for Gwent since 1997.

Retiring from Corus (formerly British Steel) in 2001, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant for Gwent in the same year, taking over from Sir Richard Hanbury-Tenison, of Clytha Park.

Simon added: “Retirement is a series of question marks at this stage, but I certainly hope to get involved in some new activities probably in the voluntary sector.”

In 2015 he was awarded the Knight’s Commander.

Supporting him the last 46 years has been his wife Catriona who has been involved in voluntary work with the Red Cross and with The Samaritans during the 1980s and 1990s. From 1986 to 2006 she ran a successful Garden School and Plant Nursery from home and their garden has been open for the National Garden Scheme’s charities every year for the last 30 years, and has been on the RHS’s UK list of recommended gardens to visit since 2005. They have been married 46 years, have four daughters and eight grandchildren.

After a fulfilling an extremely enjoyable shrieval year, Andrew Tuggey relinquished the ancient appointment of High Sheriff of Gwent when his successor, Anthony Clay made his declaration on at the Sessions House last week.

At the ceremony, Andrew Tuggey described that being required by Her Majesty to ‘Take the Custody and Charge of the County during Her Pleasure’ was a wide-ranging and daunting brief.

During his year of office he had met, and had received much support from; the ’blue-light’ services and the many dedicated volunteers, public servants and young people in communities and organisations across Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Newport and Torfaen.

Whilst his work had focussed particularly on gender empowerment; diversity and social inclusion, he had engaged with the business community and charitable foundations in South Wales to support the work of the Gwent High Sheriffs’ Community Fund, a charity that provides funding for community-based initiatives to mentor and inspire young people.

During his 12 months as High Sheriff, Lieutenant Colonel Tuggey had spent much time listening and learning, with occasional opportunities to facilitate.

There had been the Agincourt 600 celebrations and the Monmouth Town flag competition, the excitement of learning about the vital work of the Severn Area Rescue Association on a bright sunny and cold November’s day on the Severn Estuary and hearing six-year olds playing in Gwent Music’s programmes, amongst other highlights.