{"id":311,"date":"2018-10-15T11:21:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T11:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland\/?p=311"},"modified":"2018-10-15T11:36:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T11:36:46","slug":"royal-appointment-an-interview-with-dr-sarah-furness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/highlights\/royal-appointment-an-interview-with-dr-sarah-furness\/10-2018","title":{"rendered":"Royal Appointment: An Interview with Dr Sarah Furness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Dr Sarah Furness, Lord Lieutenant of Rutland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let me begin<\/strong> by explaining the importance of the Lord-Lieutenancy position thanks to Sarah Furness\u2019s blog. The Lord-Lieutenant of Rutland is Her Majesty\u2019s representative within the county, and it is Sarah\u2019s first and foremost duty to uphold the dignity of the Crown. Lord-Lieutenants are not political figures.\u00a0The Lord-Lieutenant has an important role in relation to local civic, business, industrial, social and community life. In particular, Sarah attempts to follow the example of the modern monarchy and provide support and encouragement for volunteers and\u00a0charitable organisations that seek to do good for our local society.\u00a0Sarah attends a significant number of events all across Rutland and beyond, meeting people from all walks of life. If you have an event that you think would benefit from a visit from Sarah, get in touch!\u00a0I went to visit Sarah Furness at her home in Whissendine where she has lived for 28 years in the Old Vicarage, a beautiful house that she has been able to put her own touch on.<\/p>\n

So how long have you lived in this beautiful home?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we moved in, we bought it off a couple who had done a bit of work, but they hadn\u2019t put any central heating in,\u201d says Sarah. You can almost see her shudder at the memory of the damp and cold. The garden wasn\u2019t established either, \u201cWe had a vegetable patch and lots of bindweed,\u201d says Sarah. \u201cWhen we first moved in I\u2019d tell our neighbours that I was a keen gardener and they\u2019d give me this funny look as all I\u2019d been able to do for months was spray everything with weed killer!\u201d 28 years later and the garden is magnificent, in fact, for the last 16 years, Sarah has opened it up to the National Garden Scheme.<\/p>\n

To go into a bit more detail, there is an enormous yew hedge that provides shelter to the main lawn in the garden that Sarah planted herself. There is also a beautiful greenhouse constructed by Sarah\u2019s very talented husband, Professor Peter Furness, a doctor. \u201cHe is\u00a0wonderful to be married to because if I come up with an idea, he does it,\u201d says Sarah. \u201cI just go \u2018Peter, I\u2019ve been thinking,\u2019 and he does all this superb woodwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah showed me some of the beautiful work that Peter has already completed in the Orangery and its cabinets, the windows of the greenhouse outside which reflect the structure of the church next door and the Gothic chicken coop too.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Whissendine like as a village?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhissendine is a super village, it\u2019s such a privilege to live here. We have a wonderful church right next door, St Andrew\u2019s. My husband is a bell-ringer there. I have given it a go, but it wasn\u2019t for me, it\u2019s actually quite difficult. Our daughter, Felicity, got married there a couple of years ago too. We love visiting the local pub too, The White Lion; the landlord, Chris, is a magician who is very high up in the magic circle!\u201d<\/p>\n

How has becoming Lord-Lieutenant affected your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband Peter has been very supportive throughout my time as High-Sheriff. Peter helps on the techy stuff now that I\u2019m Lord-Lieutenant, I have my own website and I\u2019m the only Lord-Lieutenant to update a blog on a weekly basis. Peter helps me upload everything onto the website. We\u2019ve been married 39 years on the 1 September. Before all this, Peter had been president of his medical Royal College and I\u2019ve supported him throughout, so he said it was payback time and he\u2019s helped me in every way he can.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we were chatting about how Sarah ended up in the position to begin with, I was amazed at just how much time she gives to the Rutland community. \u201cI had done voluntary work in the past, when, to my surprise, I was put forward to be High Sheriff. I was terrified of public speaking, but I knew I had to at least try, these days I love it! With the High Sheriff position, you find out four years in advance and you even get to go to London for training in aspects you aren\u2019t as confident in such as the public speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great surprise when I received the letter asking me to be High Sheriff. I remember it so clearly, I was heading out and I\u2019d put all the post on the passenger seat of the car. When I stopped at Ashwell Crossing I saw a smart envelope in the footwell and thought I\u2019d open it. It was a letter from Bart Hellyer asking if I would be High Sheriff, then the barriers came up, so I had a very excited drive to Oakham after that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you had a good time in these positions so far? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI had an absolutely fantastic time as High Sheriff, you have no idea how much voluntary work is going on and it\u2019s lovely to offer some sort of official recognition from The Queen to say thank you for all the hard work people put in. As Lord-Lieutenant I can continue and expand on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, I was invited to London to meet the fellow Lord-Lieutenants at St James\u2019 Palace. We went onto a Buckingham Palace Garden party. We were invited into the Royal Tea Tent which was a real treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you do outside of Lord-Lieutenancy? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very keen gardener, I\u2008used to run the programme for the Leicestershire and Rutland Garden Museum group and organise garden visits nationally. We have been opening our garden to the NGS for the past 16 years. The village safari supper starts here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love entertaining, in fact there are 14 people coming for a BBQ this evening! I\u2019m so busy on the computer doing admin as a Lord-Lieutenant and keeping my blog up to date, I don\u2019t have as much time to keep up with my friends as I would like. However, I do keep up with my book group with a close set of friends, it\u2019s a lovely antidote and I always keep time for that. I also like to visit Newark Antiques Fair and I\u2019m really into artwork. In fact, local painter Alastair Adams painted my portrait.\u201d Any spare time I have I spend in the garden.<\/p>\n

What have you been up to lately in your position as the area\u2019s Lord-Lieutenant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a great time going out to see people, I used a catapult for the first time with the Girl Guides at their summer camp recently, it was such fun! Every day is different. I went to a talk organised by our super High Sheriff Sue Jarron at Greetham Valley Golf Course not long ago. Squadron leader Martin Withers DFC gave a compelling talk. He is responsible for the Black Buck attack on Stanley Airfield in the Falklands which essentially won us the\u00a0Falklands war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI also had a wonderful visit to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall. \u00a3350,000,000 has been used to provide state of the art clinical rehabilitation. It will make such a difference to badly injured service personnel. At the moment it\u2019s just the military side that has been constructed but the idea is that there will be a civilian side as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hoped that clinical rehabilitation will be taught there. Clinical rehabilitation makes such a difference to people allowing them to return from serious injury to more normal working life. I hope that it will be something civilians can also benefit from. That\u2019s why fundraising is so important for facilities such as the DNRC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Rutland Poppy Project is a wonderful example of the community coming together. Everybody has got involved making ceramic poppies to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother privilege of this job which I love is having the opportunity to speak at Citizenship ceremonies. It\u2019s such a happy occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would you like to see more of? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very passionate about Resilient Rutland, for which I am a patron. The aim is to introduce resilience training and mental health counsellors across Rutland schools. Mental health is a topic that really needs more focus. As High Sheriff I realised how much childhood has changed, modern children are under great pressures – I think this project will be of great benefit.<\/p>\n

Another project that Sarah will be working closely with is the Sir Laurence Howard Rutland Scholarship Programme. This is a part of the centennial celebrations of the founding of the\u00a0University of Leicester which started as a memorial for those lost in World War I. It is one of only two such memorial universities in the world. Money for it was raised from the wealthy both in Rutland and Leicester.<\/p>\n

The university was originally \u2018The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland College\u2019 and the aim of the Scholarship committee is to reaffirm the historical connections. If you look at the Leicester University crest it has the Rutland horse shoe as part of it.\u00a0Scholarships will fund Rutland students so that there is no need for them to take on paid work during term time. Many students particularly from poorer backgrounds struggle to study and keep solvent. They have to work often in bars, or as cleaners in term time just to fund their studies. This scholarship programme will help make university life a bit easier \u2013 sadly it cannot eliminate debt, but it will reduce financial pressure.<\/p>\n

It has been called The Sir Laurence Howard Scholarship Programme to acknowledge the enormous amount Sarah\u2019s predecessor as Lord-Lieutenant did for the county of Rutland.\u00a0The Scholarship Committee (of which Sarah is the Patron) is planning a launch event this coming season for personally invited guests and local businesses from across Rutland. The event will be held at the Rutland County Showground in Oakham on November 8th in the early evening.<\/p>\n

To follow Sarah Furness, the Lord-Lieutenant\u2019s regularly updated blog, visit: www.rutlandlordlieutenant.org.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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