Baroness Thornhill
Main Page: Baroness Thornhill (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Tributes
Baroness Thornhill Excerpts
Baroness Thornhill (LD)
My Lords, on behalf of these Benches, I express our most sincere condolences to Parthe Ward’s colleagues in the Library and everyone who knew her. She was clearly a highly regarded person, and across the House we were all shocked and saddened to hear of her death. She is greatly missed.
I too echo the thanks to everyone who works to keep the House running smoothly. There are times when I suspect it is rather like the swan: all appears calm and serene, but I am sure there is lots going on underneath.
My first tribute is to Gordon Hunt. Gordon worked as head cashier for more than 25 years before retiring this May. He has a warm, approachable personality and was well respected by colleagues in the catering team and by staff across the administration. He was an exceptionally knowledgeable and diligent member of the team, with a keen eye for detail, which is useful in a cashier and in finance. He was often the first point of contact for many colleagues, helping to resolve many and various issues, and going above and beyond the call of duty to help his colleagues. Gordon was a well-liked member of the team and is missed by all his colleagues. He will, however, now have more time to watch football—he is a proud supporter of Fulham Football Club—follow the cricket and spend time with his grandchildren. Given Fulham’s past fortunes, watching them will be more enjoyable now than previously.
Peter Linge’s colleagues wrote an essay, which shows how popular he is. This is a shortened version. Peter was senior commercial manager in the Parliamentary Commercial Directorate. He had worked on parliamentary procurement projects since 1977 and moved over full time to the Parliamentary Estate on secondment in 1991. The House authorities obviously spotted a good thing, because they made him permanent 16 months later, and Peter worked here ever since. For the majority of the time between 1977 and 1991, he was involved with some of the procurements involving Parliament, including the first competitively tendered maintenance contract for the Great Clock and phases of the external stone cleaning and restoration project. For more than 17 years, Peter was the only procurement support for the then Parliamentary Works Directorate. He worked on a large number of procurement projects, including the cast-iron roofs, Operation Marquee and Millbank House. However, he was at pains to say that he was not involved at all in the procurement around Portcullis House.
Considering Peter’s exceptional accomplishments and significant contributions to the commercial field within Parliament, he is highly deserving of this mention in the House. His tireless efforts have undoubtedly had a profound and lasting impact on Parliament as a whole. Beyond his official responsibilities, Peter consistently went above and beyond to actively mentor colleagues. His significant corporate memory has been invaluable to colleagues, and he will be missed. Outside work, Peter has a wide range of interests, in particular researching his ancestry. Associated with this activity, he is a member of the Society of Genealogists. He has recently taken to horology, and has an interest in working on historic clocks, servicing and repairing many grandfather clocks dating back to the 17th century. He loves pre-1960s films and old gramophone records and is a keen amateur discographer—yes, I had to look that up.
Mark Ogden started in the House of Lords in October 1993 and at the point of his retirement this year had completed more than 30 years’ service. Initially, Mark was employed as a porter, but the following year he moved to the catering department as a kitchen porter under the direction of the then executive chef Mark Thatcher. After some time in the kitchens, Mark moved to the catering stores as a storekeeper, ensuring the smooth handling and transition of all catering deliveries, and that they got to the right department of the right kitchen intact and on time. In 1998, Mark moved to the House of Lords Gift Shop as a senior sales assistant, where he remained until his retirement in 2024. In between filling the shelves and replenishing, Mark would be on hand to offer his exemplary standard of customer care, assisting Members, staff and visitors with purchases or inquiries. Mark was a very popular and respected member of the catering and retail team. This was also shown through his role as a trade union representative within that team. Members of staff were always happy to approach Mark for advice and support, and he was always ready and willing to provide it. The whole catering team wish Mark a happy and healthy retirement, as do we. It will provide him with the opportunity to spend more time following his beloved Millwall Football Club. Unlike the Millwall fans’ chant, it is clear that everybody likes him, and they do care.
The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)
My Lords, before I pay tribute to three most wonderful staff members, I fully associate myself with the thanks expressed by my fellow usual channels’ colleagues in general to the whole House. I add two additional thanks. The first is for the many additional kindnesses that so many staff have shown to Members in doing things that are entirely outwith their job descriptions; with our slightly older Cross Benches, that is a special and helpful thing.
Secondly, I want to mention the security guards whose job it is to stand in the wintry cold of our current front door arrangements. They have the warmest of smiles and the quickest of witty remarks as one emerges from the pod.
James Cameron-Wood retires at the end of December after 12 years of dedicated service. Prior to the House of Lords, he had 29 years of exemplary service in the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of chief petty officer and specialising in electronic warfare and intelligence. He joined the House as a doorkeeper in January 2013 and became Deputy Principal Doorkeeper in July 2019. He has, with his much-medalled chest, had leading roles on numerous state occasions, particularly for the lying in state of Her late Majesty the Queen. I was on duty on a vigil guard and could see him for a number of the 20 minutes there, with often very distressed people, helping them along and keeping the whole thing flowing, and that gave us strength in doing what we were doing. He was, of course, also present for the Coronation.
In 2014 he received a commendation from the chief superintendent of the parliamentary police for outstanding professionalism and vigilance. This concerned preventing three protesters from disrupting the visit of the Canadian Prime Minister—and I am jolly sure that other chief petty officer skills were employed on that occasion.
James was instrumental in the design and development of the Peers’ Guest Room booking system, a practical system that works very well and that I use every day. He and his wife Alison have now moved to Scarborough, and I wish him on behalf of the House very well for a long and happy retirement.
Jane White started in the House of Lords in 2003 when she was appointed to the snappily named Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee as an adviser. This was rapidly renamed our very own Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, and Jane worked for that committee from its inception in 2003 until her retirement. She played a critical role in developing the committee as the highly regarded mechanism for effective scrutiny of secondary legislation that it is today. She was instrumental in getting systemic improvements made within government departments for their treatment of secondary legislation—through, I know, force of logic and force of personality in equal measure.
The committee met great scrutiny challenges in Brexit and in the Covid pandemic, and a number of its members have commented to me what a tower of strength she was then and how inspirational she was in handling those issues. Over her career she became the institutional authority for all issues relating to secondary legislation and, unsurprisingly, in 2020 Jane received an OBE for services to Parliament. She has a joyful and wicked sense of humour and, as a number of colleagues whom she line-managed have said, their careers have flourished under her tutelage.
To celebrate her well-earned retirement, Jane and her husband went to Japan, although at that time they were without their two daughters and spaniel Indie. A lover of gardening and whisky—she should be Scottish—I wish her too on behalf of the House a very long and happy retirement.
Sarah Kerr, who is my private secretary, has worked in the Lords since March 2003. After roles across the House and in the Leader’s office, Sarah became assistant private secretary to three successive Clerks of the Parliaments. They and their private secretaries relied on her calm and authoritative presence and organisational skill. When she took on that role, she focused on ensuring that services were resilient, and chose to cross-train her teams to cover each other’s tasks. As Covid hit, that attention to colleagues and continuous process improvement proved utterly vital. Due in large part to Sarah’s foresight, the Clerk’s office was able to continue nearly seamlessly, including providing support to ensure that sittings of the House could carry on unimpeded.
In Sarah’s role, her mix of kindness, tact and nous have enabled her to excel, having arrived at the Cross Benches, in the pastoral elements of supporting 180 or so Cross-Benchers and in the varied diet that is the convenor’s work. She particularly shone following the sudden illness of Lord Judge. While as upset as all of us, she quickly made arrangements for an interim convenor, handled the many messages from members and staff and made arrangements for the election of the new convenor. In short, she single-handedly kept the show running. She is very highly regarded by each and every one of the Cross-Bench Peers, and in my 20 months I can say that I have become in awe of her capacity, skill and work ethic. As a manager, she has concentrated on coaching and developing those who reported to her, and time and again she has had vacancies in her team caused by the promotion of staff whom she had selflessly encouraged in their careers.
Sarah’s favourite band, the Felice Brothers, specialising as they do in Americana—that blend of country, folk and rock—has a notably loyal following, and very much to the fore of that are Sarah and her husband Dougie. Her retirement will give Dougie and her even more time to stalk the Felice Brothers around the world, and I am sure that she will.
I have had quite a lot of people write to me about Sarah’s retirement. Ed Ollard has put it better than I could, saying that she
“has an amazing skill and grace. The sort of person you want to have around & you will be confident that she will ensure any outcome will be as good as it could be”.
I can only agree.
I thank my fellow usual channels, who have been incredibly helpful to me and indeed to the Cross Benches this year. We have made a number of requests, and I am deeply grateful that they are almost always met in whole or in part. It is a lot of fun working with people whom I see regularly and share the odd Jaffa cake with. Having said that, I wish the whole House, every member of staff and every Member a happy Christmas.