Trustees

Chairman

J G Cluff DL

Algy Cluff joined, and became Chairman of, War Memorials Trust Board of Trustees in November 2001.

Mr Cluff is Company Chairman of Cluff Gold plc which he established as Cluff Oil in 1971 following his retirement from service as a 2/Lieut, Grenadier Guards and Captain Guards Independent Parachute Co. Between 1982 and 1985 he was proprietor of The Spectator, followed by a period as Chairman from 1985 to 2004. Alongside War Memorials Trust Mr Cluff is also a Trustee of Anglo-Hong Kong Trust, Governor of Commonwealth Institute and Stowe School, Chairman of The Stowe House Preservation Trust and Director of The Centre for Policy Studies.

Treasurer

Roger Bardell

Roger Bardell joined War Memorials Trust as Treasurer in January 2003, becoming a Trustee in September 2004.

Mr Bardell retired in 1997 after spending 34 years with Lloyds Bank, where he held managerial positions in several West End branches, two regional offices and at head office including management of the bank’s services to small business and as Director of Internal Communications. Since retiring, Mr Bardell has spent his time working voluntarily for several organisations and learning to speak Italian. As a result, for the last decade he has divided his time between Lord’s Cricket Ground, the Imperial War Museum, the RSPB and travelling throughout Italy.

Speaking of his role with War Memorials Trust Mr Bardell said: “Agreeing to be Treasurer of War Memorials Trust was a logical extension of the voluntary work I was doing at the UK National Inventory of War Memorials. My grand-father was killed in the Great War, and I would not wish to see the memorial which records his name fall into disrepair or suffer from neglect. Since I joined WMT, I have already witnessed and, I hope, played a small part in, changes in its structures, management and fund-raising capabilities to bring it in line with modern practice and legal requirements.”

Colin Amery

Colin Amery joined the Board of Trustees in December 2005 as an expert from the heritage and conservation sector.

Former Director of World Monuments Fund in Britain Mr Amery was previously the Architectural correspondent for the Financial Times for 20 years as well as being an advisor for the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery and a member of the Arts Panel for the Arts Council. Mr Amery is President of the Lutyens Trust and thus involved with promoting the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens OM, KCIE, PRA, who designed the Cenotaph in Whitehall, Thiepval Arch on the Somme and many other war memorials.

Speaking of his role with the charity Mr Amery said: "I have a strong concern that war memorials should never be allowed to slip through the 'heritage net'. They are not just stone monuments they remind us daily of human loss and individual sacrifice for our shared values."

The Lord Cope of Berkeley

John Cope has been a Regional Volunteer of the Friends of War Memorials, now War Memorials Trust, since its early days in the 1990's. He was also on the Advisory Committee until he became a Trustee when the charity was reorganised in 1999.

Lord Cope is a Chartered Accountant and was an MP from 1974 to 1997, first representing South Gloucestershire and later Northavon. He was a Whip and a Minister throughout Margaret Thatcher's government and also held office under John Major until 1994. His positions included Minister of State Northern Ireland and Paymaster General. He is a Privy Counsellor and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997. He was Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords from 2001 to 2007. He served in the Royal Artillery during National Service and in the TA.

Speaking of his role with War Memorials Trust Lord Cope said: "All Trustees have a responsibility to ensure the charity runs properly. I also help make sure the Trust is recognised as the only charity devoted to the preservation of all our war memorials. A nation which forgets its past and those who gave their lives for it, cannot face the future with confidence and spirit. Our war memorials were put up to remember brave men and women who risked and lost all so that we might live in freedom. They were our people and deserve to be remembered with pride by their families and by their nation."

Jane Furlong

Jane Furlong became a Trustee in June 2002, invited to join the Board as an expert on war memorials.

Jane started her working life in the Royal Collection Photo Archive at Windsor Castle before moving to the UK National Inventory of War Memorials in November 1998 where she is now Project Co-ordinator.

She has developed an extensive knowledge of UK war memorials and memorialisation. On the strength of her memorial expertise, Jane accepted an invitation to become a member of the British Commission for Military History, a forum for the discussion of military history in its broadest sense. She has represented the Project at various levels, namely talks and presentations to interest groups and at conferences; taking part in a number of interviews and discussions on local radio and contributing to articles in the local and national press and journals.

Speaking of her role with War Memorials Trust Jane said: “To have the opportunity to work on both sides of war memorial preservation, namely compiling an archive about them and actively helping in their conservation is a great honour. I hope that the work we are doing now will provide a firm foundation for the preservation of all war memorials as well as helping to keep their prominence and importance within the communities they were erected to commemorate.”

Meg Hillier

Meg Hillier became a Trustee in November 2001. She had experience of war memorial issues having been involved in a local campaign to save a war memorial at a hospital in north London.

Ms Hillier worked as a journalist before becoming involved in politics. She was a local councillor for eight years and the youngest ever Mayor of Islington in 1998/1999. She served on the London Assembly from May 2000 to 2004, standing down following selection as Parliamentary candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch. Elected to Parliament in 2005 she is a Minister at the Home Office.

Speaking of her role with War Memorials Trust Ms Hillier said: “As the major conflicts of the 20th century move from living memory to history it is vitally important that we keep alive the memory of those who contributed so much for this generation.”

Peter McCormick OBE

Peter McCormick became a Trustee in the early days of the charity and his Solicitors practice, McCormicks, based in Harrogate, has acted for War Memorials Trust in that period on a pro bono basis.

Mr McCormick is an internationally recognised expert in Sports, Media and Entertainment Law and one of the UK’s leading figures in the Charities Law field. Alongside charitable work as a Trustee of The Helen Feather Memorial Trust, Chairman and Patron of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Award and Honorary Solicitor to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and The Outward Bound Trust Mr McCormick is a member of the Legal Working Party of the Premier League and Chairman of the Sports Dispute Resolution Panel. He was awarded the OBE on 1st January 2000 for services to charity.

Speaking of his role with War Memorials Trust Mr McCormick said: "I was delighted to be asked to be a Trustee of War Memorials Trust by Sir Donald Thompson, who worked so hard to create and register the charity and to build it up in those vital early years. My fellow Trustees and I are determined to continue that work and to develop the charity. I believe it is essential for all of us in this country to remember those who fought so that we could live in a free society."

John Peat

John Peat was one of the first Trustees of the charity in his capacity as a representative of War Memorials Trust’s bank, Royal Bank of Scotland.

Initially acting as relationship manager to the charity he has assisted in guiding the charity's finances over the years keeping a close check on activity and our financial position. Now working in the commercial sector of the bank Mr Peat has retained his involvement in the charity due to his strong support for its aims and objectives.

Speaking of his role with War Memorials Trust Mr Peat said: "During my time as a relationship manager with the Royal Bank of Scotland I have been involved with various charities and felt that this knowledge would be of assistance to War Memorials Trust in its early days. Also having experience of dealing with fledging businesses I was able to ensure, with others, that the financial aspect of the charity was set up properly from the outset. I believe that we should not only all look to remember what happened in the past but also look to the future."

David Seymour

David Seymour joined the Board in September 2008 as Education/Learning Trustee. David has a degree in Modern History from Oxford. He subsequently wrote an MPhil thesis, at UEA, on Admiral Duncan and the North Sea Fleet. David served for over thirty years as Head of History at Thetford Grammar School. From 1997 he initiated and developed the school’s Remembrance and Memorial policy which focused attention on the school’s war memorials. Through involvement in the November Remembrance Service, and in its complementary academic conference and exhibition, as well as taking part, throughout the year and across the country, in other Remembrance occasions pupils came to understand something of the lives of their predecessors who had died in the two world wars.

David aims to help develop the Trust’s Education and Learning strategy to cater for all forms of learner including schoolchildren, youth groups and adult organizations. He is keen to see the Trust build strong links with peer organizations which sympathise with the aims of the Trust.

Speaking of his role with War Memorials Trust David said: “I welcome this opportunity to be involved in designing an all-embracing Education and Learning strategy which plans to ensure that the importance of war memorials in the collective memory of the nation is fully appreciated across all sections of the community.” 

Gavin Stamp

Gavin Stamp joined the Board of Trustees in March 2010 bringing experience from the heritage and conservation sector.

Dr Stamp is an architectural historian and writer, with a particular interest in war memorials. He organised the Silent Cities exhibition about the memorial and cemetery architecture of the Great War held at the RIBA in 1977 and in 2006 he published a study of The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. He has published other books about the architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Gilbert Scott dynasty and on Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Educated at Dulwich College and the University of Cambridge, he taught for a time at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and is an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow. He is a former Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society and has also presented television documentaries including a series about the Orient Express in 2007.