THE Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, Lady Gass, has signed Commissions for four new Deputy Lieutenants.
They are Jane Barrie, who lives at Kingston St Mary.
Mrs. Barrie is Chairman of Somerset Primary Care Trust, having chaired the former Dorset and Somerset Strategic Health Authority.
She was awarded the OBE in 2004 for services to the NHS and is a stockbroker by profession and formerly Regional Director of NatWest Stockbrokers.
She is Chairman of the Learning and Skills Council for Somerset and Chairman of Governors of Taunton School.
She is a Patron of St. Margaret's Somerset Hospice, President of Care Focus, Somerset, and a past President of Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland.
Dr Robert Dunning lives in Taunton and until his retirement in September 2005 was Somerset's official historian, involved in compiling the Victoria History of the county for publication by London University and in many activities concerning the county's heritage.
In his retirement Dr. Dunning serves as Chairman of the Trustees of Glastonbury Abbey, Chairman of the Friends of Wells Cathedral and a Trustee of the Friends of Somerset Churches and Chapels.
He is currently writing a history of the Diocese of Bath and Wells to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of its foundation in the year 909.
Julia Elton comes from Clevedon and is an engineering historian and antiquarian book dealer.
She is currently President of the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Technology and is the first woman to hold this post.
She ran the successful campaign to save the Brunels' Thames Tunnel in the mid 1990s and last year organised the Brunel Bicentenary Conference - Celebrating the past - inspiring the future' in Bristol.
She is Life President of the Clevedon Civic Society.
Major General Ray Pett lives in Shepton Mallet and was a soldier for 37 years.
He commanded British and Gurkha companies, a British battalion in Berlin and the Gurkha Brigade in Hong Kong.
He taught at Sandhurst and the Staff College and held staff appointments in the Ministry of Defence and NATO.
He was Colonel of the 6th Gurkhas and a Trustee of the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
After leaving the Army he joined the NHS for five years, as Chief Executive of Barts and the London NHS Trust.
He now works part-time in the private sector, in health-related projects.
He has been President of the Shepton Mallet Branch of the Royal British Legion since 1994 and has been Vice-President of the Mid-Somerset Agricultural Society since 1996.
