I was one of the early recipients of the Gold Award in 1965. My Record Book states that it was “PROVISIONAL FOR USE DURING THE EXPERIMENTAL PERIOD”. I received my Bronze Award in 1961 from the then Sir John Hunt (later Lord Hunt) who had just taken the first twelve Gold recipients to Greenland. I received my Gold Award from the Duke at Buckingham Palace having already met him at different venues during the Award Programme. More recently I became the Chairman of DofE Guernsey for more than seven years. I met the Duke on several other occasions, once at a special lunch to celebrate the Duke’s 60 years membership of the Caledonian Club and at another function to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the RSA. I always found him to be a good listener and easy to talk to and interested in my career development.

The Award Scheme gave me self-confidence and leadership training and later I became Managing Director of an International Bank.