ROGER Deeks, of Oldcroft, has been named as the Vice-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire for the next three years.

Roger, whose background is in education, will support the current Lord Lieutenant, Edward Gillespie.

The Lord Lieutenant is Her Majesty the Queen’s representative in Gloucestershire and promotes voluntary service and social and economic life of the county.

Mr Deeks (pictured right) has been a Deputy Lieutenant since 2017.

He takes over from Jane Jenner-Fust of Berkeley, continuing a pattern of short-term appointments of Vice-Lieutenants that has proved successful.

Roger has lived half his adult life in the Forest of Dean, where he has a small holding that includes a small flock of rare breed Cotswold sheep.

He held variety of senior health service posts in England and Wales before joining the University of Bristol.

He has a PhD in modern history, an MA, BA and Cert Ed, and has, more recently, worked on a number of Forest of Dean based heritage projects.

They included Reading the Forest, a project under the Foresters’ Forest programme, which aims to promote the literary heritage of the Forest of Dean.

These projects bring him into contact with local schools he visits regularly, teaching local historical connections to national curriculum subjects and supporting creative writing.

He has also been a further education college governor, museum trustee and founder of a local literary society.

He is currently a trustee of the Forest Voluntary Action Forum, Chair and Trustee of Forest Read Easy Deal and President of Forest of Dean Brass.

Originally from Birmingham, and still carries the burden of being an Aston Villa supporter and is passionate about the Forest of Dean, and Gloucestershire.