PRESS RELEASE : Cabinet Office announces new appointments to the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee [February 2024]

• Committee will consider Her Late Majesty’s life of public service and make recommendations for a permanent memorial and national legacy programme.
• Appointees include Baroness Valerie Amos LG CH PC, Dame Amelia Fawcett DBE CVO and Sir William Shawcross CVO.

SENIOR figures from across British public life have been appointed to the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, the Cabinet Office has announced.

Seven people have been appointed to the Committee responsible for recommending proposals for a permanent memorial and legacy programme to remember Queen Elizabeth II. These new appointments follow the announcement of Lord Janvrin, former Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, as Chair last year.

The new appointees are:

1. Baroness Valerie Amos LG CH PC
2. Dame Amelia Fawcett DBE CVO
3. Joe Garner
4. Alex Holmes
5. Anna Keay OBE
6. Sandy Nairne CBE FSA
7. Sir William Shawcross CVO

Each member will bring unique knowledge and experience to the project. Further appointments will be made to the Committee in due course, to provide particular expertise and advice.

The Committee will meet for the first time this month.

Over the next two years the Committee will consider Her Late Majesty’s life of public service throughout her long reign and the causes she supported. In doing this they will also engage with the public to ensure ideas and suggestions from across the whole of society are captured.

One of the Committee’s first activities will be to engage and consult with experts in relevant fields in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure expertise from across the UK is shared.

The plans will be unveiled to coincide with what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s hundredth birthday year in 2026.

The UK Government will support the successful proposals, and will work closely with the Committee as proposals develop.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said:

For seventy years Queen Elizabeth II was our greatest public servant and it is fitting that we develop a lasting memorial to her legacy. These new committee members bring a range of unique expertise and experience to this important project.

Committee Chair Lord Janvrin said:

These appointments bring together a very talented group of people with a wide range of expertise, experience and contacts to manage this important national project. I very much look forward to working with them.

ENDS

Notes to editors

The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee is an independent advisory body jointly supported by the UK Government and Royal Household.

Biographies of members being appointed

Lord Janvrin GCB GCVO PC

The Committee is chaired by Lord Janvrin GCB GCVO PC. Robin Janvrin joined the Royal Household in 1987 and served as Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II between 1999 and 2007, having served as her Press Secretary, Assistant Private Secretary and Deputy Private Secretary between 1987 and 1999.

Before entering the Royal Household he served in the Royal Navy between 1964 and 1975 and in the Diplomatic Service between 1975 and 1987, taking postings in NATO Brussels and New Delhi.

Since leaving the Royal Household, Lord Janvrin served as Chairman of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry from 2010 to 2016, and a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 2008 to 2016 and of the Gurkha Welfare Trust from 2010 to 2016. He was Senior Adviser to HSBC Private Bank (UK) between 2008-2019.  He has been a Member of the British Library Board since 2017, a Trustee of the Normandy Memorial Trust since 2018 and is Secretary of the Order of Merit.  He was ennobled in 2007 and sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.

The members of the Committee are:

The Rt Hon Baroness Valerie Amos LG PH PC

Baroness Valerie Amos has been the Master of University College Oxford since September 2020. Prior to this she was the Director of SOAS, University of London. She was a Cabinet Minister, 2003-2007, including serving as Secretary of State for International Development and Leader of the House of Lords.

Baroness Amos has also served as UK High Commissioner to Australia and was the United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2010 -2015.

Lady Amos’s interests include, foreign policy and development matters, social justice, equality and inclusion as well as education. . She is on the board of the Mastercard Foundation, UN Foundation and Institute for Government and is also a member of the advisory board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Patron of the Amos Bursary.

Dame Amelia Fawcett DBE CVO

Dame Amelia is Lead Director of State Street Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts.   She was a Governor of the Wellcome Trust from 2019-2023, a Non-Executive Director and then Chairman of Kinnevik AB in Stockholm from 2011 – 2021 and of the Guardian Media Group plc from 2007 – 2013.  She  worked for Morgan Stanley for 20 years, joining in London in 1987 and becoming Chief Operating Officer and Vice Chairman of the European, Middle East and Africa operations in 2002. Dame Amelia started her career at the US law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, first in New York and then in Paris.

Dame Amelia is Co-Chair of the International Advisory Panel for Biodiversity Credits, Chair of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a Trustee of Project HOPE UK. Until recently, she was Chairman of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments, a Non-Executive member of the Board of HM Treasury, Chairman of The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation, Deputy Chairman and a Governor of the London Business School and a Commissioner of the UK-US Fulbright Commission.  She also has been a member of the Court of the Bank of England and Deputy Chairman of the National Portrait Gallery.

Dame Amelia was appointed a Commander of The Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in Her late Majesty The Queen’s 2018 Birthday Honours List, an honour solely in the gift of the Monarch, She was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and a CBE in 2002, in both cases for services to the financial services industry. She received The Prince of Wales’s Ambassador Award in 2004.

Johnson (Joe) Garner

Joe led Nationwide Building Society through Brexit and COVID as CEO from 2016 to 2022. His career started with Procter & Gamble in 1991 based predominantly in Romania. In 2001 he joined Currys Plc before moving to HSBC in 2004 where he progressed to lead the UK.   In 2014 he became Chief Executive Officer of BT’s Openreach.

Joe was a non-executive director of the Financial Ombudsman Service from 2008-2010 and served on the Board of the UK Finance and the Financial Regulator’s Practitioner Panel.  Joe now works as an advisor to CEO’s and recently completed the independent Future of Payments Review for the Chancellor.

Joe is a Patron of British Triathlon and a GB age group competitor finishing 16th at the 2022 World Championships.  He was Chair of the British Triathlon charity from 2013 to 2021 and since 2023 is Chair of the charity Tennis First.

Alex Holmes, Queen’s Young Leader

Alex currently serves as the Deputy CEO at The Diana Award, a non-profit organisation inspired by Princess Diana’s belief in the transformative power of young people. He leads initiatives to recognise and support global changemakers, providing them with the skills to amplify their social impact. In addition to his role at The Diana Award, Alex serves as a Director at BBC Children In Need, where he focuses on the ‘We Move’ fund.

Holmes was driven by personal experiences with bullying, and in 2004 founded the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors program. This peer-to-peer support initiative has trained over 50,000 young people across the UK, Ireland, Greece, and Miami. He plays a crucial role, sitting on the global safety advisory boards of major social media companies, including Spotify, Meta, TikTok, Twitch, Yubo, and Snapchat. He provides valuable insights and advice on approaches to safety and mitigating online harms. Alex is a regular expert on ITV This Morning, CBBC Newsround and a trusted government advisor.

A Queen’s Young Leader, Alex is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and a recipient of The Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award. He was also part of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Advisory Board, contributing to their Sustainable Development Goals ‘Goalkeeper program.’  Holmes was Named on the Independent on Sunday’s Happy List as one of the ‘100 people who make Britain a happier place to live.

Alex was recognised as a ‘Queen’s Young Leader’ in 2017 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his exceptional work in combating bullying and fostering a positive environment for children. The Queen’s Young Leaders programme ran from 2014 to 2018 and recognised and celebrated exceptional young leaders aged 18-29 from across the Commonwealth.

Dr Anna Keay OBE

Dr Anna Keay OBE is a historian, curator and broadcaster born and brought up in the West Highlands of Scotland. She read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford and has a Ph.D. from Queen Mary, University of London. She was formerly a Curator of Historic Royal Palaces and the Curatorial Director of English Heritage.

Dr Keay is currently Director (CEO) of the historic buildings charity the Landmark Trust, which works to save and repair endangered historic buildings. The charity’s project to revive derelict Astley Castle in Warwickshire won the Stirling Prize for architecture in 2013.

Anna is a Trustee of the Royal Collection Trust and the Pilgrim Trust. She has written and broadcast widely on British history and culture including contributing to BBC coverage of the Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of HM The King. Her most recent book, The Restless Republic (William Collins, 2022) won the Duff Cooper Prize for Non-Fiction and was The Sunday Times History Book of the Year, 2022.

Alexander (Sandy) Nairne CBE FSA

Sandy Nairne is a writer and curator and until 2015 was Director of the National Portrait Gallery. He has previously worked at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Arts Council, and as Director of Programmes at Tate.

He is Deputy Chair of the National Trust, Chair of the Fabric Advisory Committee at St Paul’s Cathedral and supports Maggie’s cancer care centres as art advisor. He is a member of the Bank of England Banknote Character Advisory Committee and the arts and humanities panel of the Wolfson Foundation. For several years he was Chair of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group.

His publications include State of the Art, 1987, the anthology Thinking about Exhibitions, 1996, The 21st Century Portrait, Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners, 2011, and The Coincidence of Novembers, 2020. He is the co-author of a biography of Lord Desborough being published by Unbound in early 2024.

In 2011 he was appointed CBE and elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Sir William Shawcross CVO

Sir William Shawcross has dedicated a significant portion of his life to the field of writing, with a particular focus on subjects related to our constitutional monarchy. In 2002, he authored “Queen and Country,” a book that complemented his BBC1 television series, serving as the flagship publication for the Golden Jubilee.

In 2003, Sir William was honoured with Her late Majesty The Queen’s gracious invitation to pen the Official Biography of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, which was subsequently published in 2009. In 2014, with the Queen’s permission, he undertook the editing and publication of a selection of the Queen Mother’s letters, titled “Counting One’s Blessings.”

Transitioning to public service in 2012, Sir William assumed the role of Chairman of the Charity Commission, a position he held until 2018. Subsequently, he conducted a study for the Foreign Secretary, focusing on Colonel Gaddafi’s covert military and financial support for the IRA.

Sir William was appointed by the Home Secretary to serve as the Independent Reviewer of the Home Office’s counter-extremism programme, Prevent, in 2021. He currently holds the position of Commissioner for Public Appointments.