Celebrating the Queen’s Birthday with the Governor General

Australia’s new Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, is clearly enjoying his role. He gave a very warm speech at a dinner in Canberra last night, hosted by the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Australia Britain Society (of which I am the Patron) to celebrate the birthday of HM The Queen.

The Governor General used the occasion to talk about some of the individual recipients of Australian awards announced in the Birthday Honours here last week. They ranged from prominent academics making life-saving medical innovations, to ordinary citizens involved in local community activities like Meals on Wheels. It was an excellent example of what Sir Peter described as the Governor General’s role in shining a light on the best of the country.

Sir Peter told me how much he had enjoyed hosting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge recently, at the start of his term of office, and how he is looking forward to his first official visit to the UK as Governor General to call on the Queen later this year.

The local President of the Australia Britain Society, Bob Nattey, a retired senior Royal Australian Navy officer, described how his experiences as an exchange student at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, alongside students from Britain and many Commonwealth countries, had had a profound effect on his commitment to the Commonwealth over the years. President of the Canberra Royal Commonwealth Society, Kanti Jinna, told me how he had worked closely with the British Council when establishing the Fijian National Library many years ago.

A number of my fellow High Commissioners from other Commonwealth countries were also present, including the Sri Lankan High Commissioner who is also a Dartmouth alumnae. It was another reminder of the dense web of personal ties which underlie the formal relationships between Commonwealth countries.