Gordon Loraine - 60th Anniversary tribute

Today, Tuesday 29th January, represents the 60th anniversary of the date my late father, (Thomas) Gordon Loraine, started his career in local government. He served the people of several communities in the north-east of England and in Hertfordshire for 40 years, before taking an early 'retirement' to begin another career in the commercial sector and finally run an antiques business with my mother.

It's easy when times are as fast-paced as they are now, and our lives seemingly lacking in sufficient time and space for reflection, to forget what it takes to build and sustain a long and successful career in any field, let alone local government service. A service, which despite the cheap shots that many commentators and 'phone-in' 'pundits' take at it, remains as relevant, valuable and necessary now as it was in 1948; a time when the country was rebuilding after the war and its people suffering quite severe deprivations.

I became aware of and started to understand this thing called 'local government' quite early on in my teens. I came to learn about it variously as something that my father did, spoke of, and as a place where he went daily (and in the evenings for committee meetings) that I didn't see yet I gradually appreciated its purpose. I was able to join him at times in my school holidays, helping out in the post room of Bushey Urban District Council. That was followed by longer pieces of more official holiday work and then a permanent post when I joined Hertsmere District Council, as it had become after local government reorganisation in 1974, from my first authority, the London Borough of Brent.

I was very fortunate to have my father as a mentor in those early years in local government, and more latterly as a keen supporter and enourager of my intentions take a risk and set up a company when I was reaching my most productive years as a senior officer. That shift of career has worked out so far, and to his passing day my father retained an avid interest in how the local governance field was changing and developing. He did often though comment that whilst he recognised the general structure of local government, its various and many recent changes had rendered it quite a mysterious place to him at times - a notion many of my current clients might subscribe to!

There are a number of enduring values and attributes that I learnt from my father and try to practice in the way he did; values such as fairness, the need for balance and to seek to exercise sound judgement, and attributes like self-reliance and personal resilience. He taught me those things early on and as my career developed, in some ways mirroring his, they have stood me in good stead. A career that for me has now passed the 30 years mark, both in permanent roles and now in leading a company that provides services for local government.

So, 60 years has passed since Gordon Loraine first walked into the then Seaham UDC Council Offices, and as I walk through the door of the County Hall where I have an assignment today, I shall offer a silent word of thanks to my father, for introducing me to local government, and on behalf of all of those he served and worked with, for the fantastic and unsung service he gave for those 40 years.