No . 132 The Trusty Servant achievement at Winchester was so poor that my father suggested the only possible career I could pursue was the Army . And even that looked less than promising given a rather undistinguished career in the Corps that saw me reduced in rank from lance corporal to rifleman when Dick Massen caught me shirking successive Wednesday afternoons to play golf at Hockley .
Maximo te gaudio universi ornamus summo quem dare possumus honore , singuli cogitamus quisnam ex nobis , post spatium quadraginta et quinque annorum , idem decus a posteris accepturus sit .
[ You spoke recently about how the education you received at Winchester prepared you for the diverse roles you have filled throughout your career and how it imbued you with a way of thinking ideal for the pressures of command . My fellow Wykehamists here today are privileged to receive an education that you would still recognise . As a school it gives us great pleasure to dignify you with this , the highest honour we can bestow , and as individuals , we wonder which of us , 45 years hence , might receive the same distinction from our academic descendants .]
General Sir Nick replied :
The Aulae Prae waits for Chapel clock to strike 12
Maximas , aulae praefecte , gratias agimus , primo Custodi et Sociis sodalibusque Wiccamicis pro decore quod mihi hodie donasti , deinde tibi ipsi pro verbis benignis quibus me excepisti . [ Prefect of Hall . I am very grateful to the Warden and Fellows and to my fellow Wykehamists for the honour you have bestowed on me today and to you personally for the generous words with which you have welcomed me .]
45 years ago , as a boy in the school I stood where you are standing and I remember Field Marshal Sir Michael Carver , one of my predecessors as Chief of the Defence Staff being received Ad Portas . I remember the opprobrium he received in The Wykehamist a week or so later for not having spoken in Latin . I hope you will forgive me if I follow his example - and as he put it – ‘ speak in the language of Cromwell and Marlborough , rather than that of Caesar ’.
I am sure it is a hackneyed observation for those received Ad Portas , but I am certain that listening to the Field Marshal that day I never imagined that I would one day be received Ad Portas – let alone that I would join the Army . My academic
When I look back now , I realise how fortunate I was to receive the education that I was given at Winchester . It is inspiring to be encouraged to pursue your own interests rather than being taught by rote . It develops an intellectual curiosity that encourages lifelong learning , and it obliges you to have the humility to listen to others , and to change your plan when you realise it ’ s all going wrong . And importantly it also encourages you to look at issues from the other person ’ s perspective .
I am certain that an education that develops these skills has never been more necessary . We are living in very challenging times . I cannot remember a point in my career when the global strategic context was more dynamic or more complex than it is now . We have returned to an era of greatpower competition not seen since the 1940s . The defining condition is one of instability as the threats to our country and our way of life become more widespread and more profound every year .
We are also living through a period of phenomenal change – more widespread , more rapid , and more extreme than humanity has experienced outside of world war . And it is more sustained than the two world wars of the last century combined – and the pace is forever quickening . Our fundamental and long held assumptions are being disrupted on a daily basis . Who
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