Four new Deputy Lieutenants appointed for North Yorkshire

The ceremonial titles are conferred on the recommendation of the county’s Lord-Lieutenant, Barry Dodd.

North Yorkshire is the largest Lieutenancy area in the country and the deputies, who can be chosen from all walks of life, aid the Lord-Lieutenant in his role as the Queen’s official representative.

The new appointments bring the number of Deputy Lieutenants in North Yorkshire to 47, the maximum allowed based on the county’s population.

One of the new appointees is former county councillor Clare Wood, daughter of Lord and Lady Martin Fitzalan Howard. She deals in paintings by the 19th century Staithes School of artists, a French impressionist-inspired group based in the fishing village north of Whitby.

She and her husband, Simon, live at Brockfield Hall near York.

Heather Hancock, a former chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, is another of the new deputies.

She is chairman of the Food Standards Agency and chair of the governors at Giggleswick School. A former board member at Deloitte, she also chairs the Senior Women in Public Leadership network in the House of Lords.

The Leeds-born former submarine commander Capt Stephen Upright is also appointed to the Lieutenancy. He commanded a squadron of nuclear submarines based in Scotland, later serving on the staff of the First Sea Lord as Assistant Director of Operations and adviser on Strategic Deterrent Submarine Operations. A keen offshore yachtsman, he has rounded Cape Horn on a passage from New Zealand to Uruguay

Trevor Watson, a retired financial services director, is the fourth to be appointed. He is a past lay member of the Child Support Agency Appeal Tribunal.