Page 4 - the SyI Quarterly 15

Know your Institute
Know your Institute

Chair’s Update:

Peter Lavery FSyI

Of significance, this quarter we had a very successful annual
general meeting (AGM) in April at the Victory Services Club
which went very well with new directors being appointed.

Following the AGM we had an even more successful Gala
awards evening, firstly we saw the Military Wives Choirs
performing as a precursor to the award ceremony itself, where
for the first time we introduced 4 new award categories. One of
the new award categories was the Lifetime Achievement Award
for which I had the pleasure of awarding to Mike Bluestone
CSyP FSyI for all his efforts over his long and distinguished
career. Another of the newer awards was the Security Institute
Award in memory of Odette Hallowes’, which is in memory of
SOE Agent Odette Hallowes GC, MBE and was presented by
Sophie Parker, who is Odette’s granddaughter. Sophie gave a
most eloquent speech about her grandmothers’ clandestine
work during WW2 presented to those who have demonstrated behind the scenes exceptional work
largely unrecognised and behind the scenes to keep our country safe.

That evening, the Odette Hallowes’ award went to Nick Aldworth and Brendan Cox for their support to
Figen Murray ASyI OBE and to the campaign, Martyn’s Law. Those of us that were in the room could see
how much it meant to Nick when Figen gave a very moving pre-recorded tribute about the support she
had received from both Nick and Brendan.

The second recipient, for the same award, was a former special forces operative of some renown within
that community known as ‘M’ who as you might appreciate could not attend the awards for obvious
security reasons and a silent ceremony has been arranged for a later date.

Another development to note, is that the Security
Institute is supporting the development of a level
4 protective security apprenticeship, established
through a Trailblazer group. This project has been
identified by government as a crucial initiative to drive
down security risk. The apprenticeship has involved
the ’Protective Security Centre’ with Government
Security Group, the National Protective Security
Authority (NPSA), the National Authority for Counter
Eavesdropping (NACE) and the National Cyber
Security Centre (NCSC) along with representation
from both the public and private sector. This is a
great example of public and private collaboration and
there will be more about this subject at the Security
Institute conference in October.

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