Trustees – Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum

Board of Directors

Brigadier (Retired) Tony Harking OBE

Trustee

Tony Harking served in the Royal Engineers in which he commanded a close support engineer regiment in Germany and later, as Commandant, The Royal School of Military Engineering. After retiring from the Army in 2011, he became the Head of Programmes at Babcock International Group and in 2016, became the Under Treasurer/Chief Executive of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn. It is one of the four inns of Court comprising 14 acres in High Holborn, which the Inn has occupied since the 14 th Century. Alongside responsibility for the education of aspiring barristers, managing the estate and the Inn’s commercial activities, he held responsibility for the archive and Library.

In October 2022, he retired from Gray’s Inn having been elected an Honorary Master of the Bench. He will assume the role of Chair of the Radiation Protection Council in December 2024 and continues to work as a consultant on the development of military training for Babcock International Group. Since 2017, he has resided in Thame and continues to seek physical challenges alongside a small group of ex-military friends who his wife describes as the “last of the summer wine”.

Colonel (Retired) Mike Montagu

Trustee

Mike Montagu served in the Light Infantry and then The Rifles commanding the First Battalion Light Infantry, which became 5 Rifles when the new Regiment formed in 2007.

Since retiring he worked in facilities management for Sodexo before spending over nine years as Bursar at Ditchley Park prior to taking on a new part time role there as Host & Historian in early 2022. Mike has also been County Colonel for The Rifles in Oxfordshire since 2013. A resident of Charlbury, Mike’s other interests include the Cathedral Singers in Oxford.

Heather Carter

Trustee

Heather joined the Blenheim Palace management team in 2006 moving from an exciting career in hospitality and banqueting in the City of London and working with Government Hospitality team. Her role as Operations Director at Blenheim Palace today is to be responsible for the management of all of the day-visitor facing operations, most notably guest services, security, events, retail and catering but also externally to represent the Estate’s businesses locally to promote and to drive the Palaces economic contribution to the local community. Heather lives in Woodstock and is a member of the Wake Up To Woodstock steering group, B4 and works closely with Experience Oxfordshire.

Henry Spilberg

Trustee

Henry has worked for over 20 years in STM (scientific, technical & medical) publishing as an editor and publisher, developing and managing a wide range of print and online resources including medical textbooks, academic journals and educational materials. He has a lifelong passion for history, especially local and military history, and is a founder member of the Great War Group. He is a parish councillor and has previously served as a primary school governor, including two years as chair.

Kindell Peters PhD

Trustee

Dr. Peters has worked in education and community development for over 20 years. Her experience includes curriculum development, university teaching, education program development and management, and grant writing and management. Her research projects focus on women, education, and socio-cultural issues using qualitative methodologies, particularly oral history. Kindell volunteers for several charities assisting with their oral history projects.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Rich Belbin

Trustee

Rich Belbin commanded the QOOH Squadron from 2001 to 2003. His subsequent service included a tour in Iraq, Second In Command of 39th (Skinners) Signal Regiment and finally on the staff at Headquarters Royal Signals in Blandford Forum. He is Vice Chair of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry Trust.

In civilian life he has worked in the Information Technology / Mobile Telephony industries and held senior appointments as both IT Director and Chief Technology Officer. Now partly retired, he continues to provide IT consultancy.

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Seddon

Trustee

Andy Seddon has served in the Grenadier Guards since 2002, with whom he has completed three tours to Afghanistan as well as tours to Iraq and Bosnia. Outside his regiment he has been an Equerry to the late Duke of Edinburgh and at staff has held a number of finance and capability roles in the MoD and Army HQ. Since handing over command of Oxford University OTC in May 23, he has returned to the MoD but continues to live in Towersey near Thame. He has a son at school in Henley and is a competitive marathon kayaker.

Major-General (Retired) David Shouesmith

Chairman

David Shouesmith became Chairman of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in the summer of 2021.

He had a 28-year military career which included command at every level and three separate postings within Oxfordshire, to Abingdon, as squadron, regimental and station commander, and which included two tours of Bosnia and one to Afghanistan. His military specialisation was in logistics, support and acquisition, with a particular interest in enabling industry to assume a greater role in the provision of military capability. As the senior logistician in the UK Ministry of Defence 2007-2009 he was closely involved in the development of RAF Brize Norton as the hub of the UK’s Strategic Air Mobility Force.

Since leaving the Army in 2009 David has worked as a management consultant, in corporate strategy, strategic supply chain and critical project management across a range of industry sectors and with companies large and small. In 2016 he joined a US tech company to lead its UK and Europe market entry and in March 2020 he joined a start-up, Universal Defence and Security Solutions, to co-lead their business development. David has a rare blend of military and private sector experience, with a profound understanding of how people, systems and processes operate across the defence and industry enterprise to deliver commercially viable defence outputs.

David continues to serve as a colonel commandant of the Royal Logistic Corps and was the founding Chairman of the Royal Logistic Corps Foundation in 2016. He served as the Honorary Colonel of the Oxfordshire Army Cadet Force (The Rifles) from 2016-2020.

David is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Abingdon. He continues to indulge his passion for rock climbing and mountain biking, in the UK and in select overseas locations, and maintains a strong interest in military history, political biography and geopolitics.

Marie-Jane Barnett

Chairman of the Friends of SOFO

Marie-Jane is the chairman of the friends and praetorians. She is responsible for organising our most successful events including lunches and parties, just as you would expect from the Lady of Towersey manor. She was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 2010 and has a passion for jazz music as well as being a talented jazz singer herself.

Tom Johnstone

Trustee

Tom is a CIMA-qualified accountant with 35 years experience working in industry in various different sectors. Over that time, he has been able to gain a wide range of accountancy and managerial experience from day-to-day running of business, acquisitions and disposals, financing and refinancing of business and pension funds.

Recently Tom has become more involved in community and charity projects using his experience to support the development, inception and running of a solar farm.
He has also joined the board as treasurer for the local citizens advice bureau and now SOFO as the finance director and has found his experience gained in industry has transferred easily to these new sectors.

He also remains a trustee on a significant pension scheme.