High Sheriff of the West Midlands

A super evening in Coventry for a service of thanksgiving for the City of Coventry and the Lord Mayor Mal Mutton.
Lord Mayor spoke with great pride about the City of Coventry and how much she has enjoyed the opportunity to act as the Lord Mayor for the past 12 months.

For those celebrating, may I wish you a very Happy Easter.
I had the pleasure of joining my Chaplain Rev Claire Reid at St John's Walmley for an uplifting service led by Rev Ade Evans, together with the Rt Revd Canon Esther Jones, Bishop of Aston.

As we approach the 80th anniversary of VE Day, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to attend a Concert for Peace at @Dudley_College last night.
The event was organised by Rose Cook Monk and was a combination of music and dance, interspersed with poignant speeches and films related to the events of the two World Wars. There was a focus on the contributions and sacrifices made by citizens of the Commonwealth, particularly those linked to communities living in Dudley.

Mark Smith is delighted and honoured to have been appointed as the High Sheriff of the County of West Midlands, following his Declaration Ceremony at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.

Mark succeeds Mr Douglas Wright MBE DL and Mark would like to thank Doug for everything he has done during his Shrieval year.

Recognising the demographic of the County, Mark will have a particular focus on young people during his year in office and consistent with this, he is really looking forward to working with his Cadets from West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service and St John Ambulance.

During my year as High Sheriff, I have witnessed the resilience, spirit, and generosity of our community. It is vital that we channel our energy into creating a better, safer and more cohesive place to live and work. By coming together we can create real impact across the West Midlands.

I have greatly enjoyed the role and have tried to balance my time equally across the seven boroughs of our County. Thank you for your backing and support of my role and work particularly with the recruitment of Magistrates. Across the year I have strived to ensure that people better understand the role of the High Sheriff. I have created communication channels that can be used and enhanced in future years by High Sheriffs and worked hard to be visible in our community.

I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity through my community outreach to meet so many great people making real impact in so many different ways.

Today, I hand over the baton to Mark Smith who becomes our new High Sheriff. It has been an honour to serve as your High Sheriff and certainly been the best year of my life. Thank you again for all of your support. I must end by saying a huge thank you to Kayleigh who has been remarkable throughout my term and helped deliver so much change particularly in our back of house processes and has made us far more customer centric in all we have delivered.

Very best wishes
Doug

Leave your well wishes for Doug here to go into his year book: forms.office.com/r/KJdECbYchm?o…