New High Sheriff of Shropshire Jane Trowbridge is up for the challenge
It’s a role steeped in history and one that isn’t taken lightly by those who step up to become the county’s next High Sheriff.
Jane Trowbridge has taken over the reins from Brian Welti and will spend the next 12 months representing His Majesty the King in supporting the judiciary, police, probation, prisons and emergency services as well as the voluntary sector.
For Jane, who has served as a magistrate for the past decade, it was a welcome opportunity to give back to the county she has called home for 25 years.
“When Tony Morris-Eyton, the High Sheriff at the time, asked me to be High Sheriff, I was completely taken aback and very surprised and honoured that he had considered me – and a little daunted by the idea because it’s a big role,” she recalls.
“I thought long and hard about it and whilst I thought there were people far more deserving to be High Sheriff than me, I decided to accept as I believe strongly in giving back to society. We have lived in Shropshire for 25 years. It is a wonderful place and the people have been enormously kind and supportive to us as a family and I felt it was important to give back to Shropshire.
“I think what is special about this county is its sense of community. People are always so welcoming and willing to help each other.
“For instance, we had a friend stay with us who had his suitcase stolen on the way up here. He was going to a formal party and didn’t have anything suitable to wear. Within an hour and after four or five phone calls, he had everything he needed.
“It was enormously kind of people, especially as they didn’t know him. People in Shropshire are very keen to help and be supportive. It’s definitely the people that make a place,” adds Jane.
Born in India, she spent a happy childhood moving between England and the Far East with her parents and four sisters, before returning in 1975 to read law at Exeter University.
On qualifying as a solicitor, she joined a London law firm, Allen & Overy, specialising in international tax law, before joining the merchant bank NMR Rothschilds & Sons Ltd as a director of their in-house trust company.
Jane married her husband, Stephen, in 1985 and shortly after their wedding, they relocated to the Channel Islands as her husband had been asked to run the Guernsey office of a London private investment firm.
She spent several years commuting between Rothschilds’ in London and their Guernsey office until her husband’s work took him to Liverpool.
