Everyone has a story. Between 2011 until he retired in November 2020 the representative Deputy Lieutenant of Islington was Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes. Here Islington Faces finds out more about the work of a DL. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill.
Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes was representative Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Islington from 2011 – November 2020. He stepped down on reaching the age of 75, which is the official DL retirement age. On 6 July 2023 the council is due to host a celebration of his service to the borough at the HAC near Old Street. Charles hopes that 10 of the Mayors he served with will be there. “It’s a chance to say goodbye, something I couldn’t do because of covid.” © Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
The honorific Deputy Lieutenant (DL) role is simultaneously high- and low-profile. The DL represents the Monarch in the absence of the Lord-Lieutenant. In Charles’ time this was the Queen (clearly this would now be the King) and acts as the Queen’s “eyes and ears” so will meet many Islingtonians at awards and ceremonies. Duties include fostering relations with charities and voluntary groups, reserve forces and cadets and nominations for individual, voluntary and corporate honours. Events might include taking a narrowboat under the Angel tunnel with a community group as well as meticulously organised Royal family visits to the borough. To be in for a chance of this job, you must live within “their ceremonial county, or within seven miles (11km) of its boundary” and have a history of public service. Candidates must also be under 75-years-old.
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Politics plays no part, but loving a place does. So, it was fascinating to meet the multi-qualified Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, DL who is a qualified physician, non-practising barrister, retired soldier (he saw action in the first Gulf War as a Lieutenant-Colonel), former Conservative MP (for Wimbledon from 1987-1997), charity CEO, Arsenal season ticket holder, perhaps unexpectedly a Jeremy Corbyn fan and rooted in Islington.
Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, DL (Deputy Lieutenants are allowed to retain the post nominal DL after their retirement) was an Arsenal season ticket holder when he lived in Islington. “I loved football! I went to a football school, Charterhouse, so I know nothing about rugger.” Interestingly, Charterhouse in EC1 is believed to be where the offside rule was devised so that students could play football in the cloisters. © Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Making connections
So what shaped Charles’ love of Islington?
At this question Charles begins to grin – it’s clear he loves this borough. “Whenever I presided over citizenship ceremonies in the Town Hall, I pointed out that those about to receive citizenship had chosen an extremely good place – Islington. And I’d say, ‘I should know because I was born here, studied as a medical student here, bought a house here, worked here as a consulting physician at BUPA in Pentonville Road and lastly brought a charity, of which I was CE, the London Playing Fields Foundation, into the borough, to Collier Street, near King’s Cross’ – which only recently moved into Bloomsbury after I left it.”
In fact, Charles wasn’t interested in a DL role until Islington was offered, in part because it brought back a flood of early adult memories. “When Islington came up and I said, ‘yes please’. Not only was I born there, but as a medical student I took a room in Lonsdale Square. It was where I studied and then I stood in 1979 as the Conservative candidate for Islington Central (stretching from Lower Holloway to Furlong Road) which has since disappeared. I think very few people remember that incarnation, but just before that election I bought a derelict Georgian house at 61 Theberton Street. When I went to Islington council and said, ‘I’ve bought a house and want to claim a renovation grant,’ they said ‘that’s unfortunate because there’s no such house! It emerged it had been renumbered and used to be 4 Gibson Square. By pure chance the garden of 61 backed on to my birthplace, the wall separated me from what was the City of London Maternity Hospital,” he recalls. It was a happy coincidence.
Charles lived in N1 for several years with his wife and young family. This was a time when Islington was starting to attract incomers, as much for its location as the architectural gems. “It’s known rather unattractively as gentrification, but it succeeded in saving a lot of houses of architectural merit,” says Charles when he meets Islington Faces in a hotel in St James’, central London for this interview.
As Islington’s deputy lieutenant (DL) Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, DL, represented the Queen in the borough when the Lord Lieutenant was not available. “As there are 32 London boroughs the Queen didn’t get to Islington that often.” The map helped Charles keep tabs on all the places receiving Royal visits during his term as DL. © Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
DL style
Although many DLs have no military connections there is an official DL uniform. When Charles was appointed as Deputy Lieutenant for the London Borough of Islington in 2011, he asked if he could use his Life Guards uniform instead. Permission was granted. Charles was very pleased at this success, “Firstly because I was used to wearing it, and secondly I didn’t have to buy a new uniform!”
As DL he met a many Royal visitors to Islington. “I met every member of the Royal family in Islington, (apart from the Queen [who I’ve met elsewhere], including the Princess of Wales, she and Prince William came to Islington together, except that I haven’t met Prince Harry – he did have an appointment, but he cancelled it at the last moment. Princess Anne is the most frequent visitor, an amazingly hard worker, and I’ve met her at least half a dozen times. She always has a brief but once gets to the destination talks without notes,” he says.
“Charles (then the Prince of Wales) was delightfully relaxed – but he’s also very dangerous to receive,” says our Charles. “Once I received him and Prince Albert of Monaco, for an environmental conference at King’s Place, and later I got a telephone call from Buckingham Palace as both had gone down with Covid so I’d better get checked!”
To keep track of visits over his 10-year DL stint, Charles put stickers on a map of the borough – red dots are Royal visits and green dots official visits. The chart makes clear that the South of the borough gets more than its fair share of Royal visits, but Charles explains that is just “a question of location and logistics”.
Charles is definitely a ‘people person’ and clearly enjoyed the element of theatre before each DL occasion. “Members of the Royal family get used to seeing your face,” he says. “I remember going to St John when the Princess Royal was giving awards to young volunteers. I was in uniform, as she was. She turned and said to me as we went through the Guard of Honour ‘I can’t remember what is the right sort of salute to give in this uniform’. I replied, ‘I don’t think I can help you Ma’am.”
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Although his DL role was non-political, Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, DL first stood for parliament for Islington Central in 1979 (for context, Jeremy Corbyn first won the Islington North seat for the Labour Party in 1983). “Whilst I don’t disguise this fact, I saw no point in emphasising it given my subsequent apolitical role.” Charles later became a Tory MP for Wimbledon, holding the seat from 1987-1997. © Kimi Gill for Islington Faces
Places Charles Goodson-Wickes loves in Islington
1 My birthplace in Liverpool Road, N1. “My affection for Islington has been long established, not least because I was born there while my father was away serving in the Royal Navy. I was meant to be born in Barts Hospital, as my father was a Barts man – he was a consultant paediatrician – but my mother fell out with the obstetrician. She went to the City of London Maternity Hospital instead. At that time, it was in Islington and became part of the Royal Free, off Liverpool Road. That building is now a housing association.”
2 The Charterhouse in Charterhouse Square, “because of the link with my school. When I was head of the choir at the school (in Godalming, Surrey) I sang there, at a Founders’ Day Dinner and was subsequently guest speaker. The Charterhouse was one of the members of the consortium I set up to promote cross-fertilisation between fine heritage sites on each side of the Islington and City border. In Islington there was Charterhouse, the Priory of St John and Goldsmiths’ Centre, and on the other side of this artificial boundary Barts the Great church, Barts Hospital Museum and Barts Hospital itself. The initiative got a long way and was based on the projected opening of the Elizabeth line making Farringdon a vital new destination. But the Elizabeth line got pushed further back and then Covid struck, and there were some key personnel changes, so we lost momentum. I’m about to re-activate The Ring (a play on words for Farringdon), perhaps linked to the Cultural Mile, as it was widely welcomed and supported by Goldsmiths’, the Corporation of London and Islington Council. The director of the Museum of London also kept in contact because they are moving into West Smithfield in the City of London.”
3 Arsenal football club. “Around 1977 when I bought a house in Islington, and for many years more, I was a season ticket holder at Highbury. I saw Arsenal win the cup. I have a great affection for the old Highbury ground and enjoyed seeing Liam Brady, Dennis Bergkamp, Alan Hudson, Robert Pirès, Thierry Henry and John Hollins playing. I shared a season ticket with another man, but I was very busy and I think he got the rather better deal!”
4 Sadler’s Wells particularly Akram Khan and Sylive Guillem. “I thought Sylvie was an amazingly innovative dancer. As DL I organised a representative from Sadler’s Wells to meet the Queen for the Golden Jubilee.”
5 Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), on City Road, EC1, established in 1537 and now a charity. “The service of my grandfather’s brother in the Boer War is commemorated in a plaque in Armoury House.” Its regiment is part of the Army Reserves, and it has a membership of 2,500 active and veteran personnel. It’s where Charles will have his DL send-off.
6 Remembrance parades. “Every year in my time in Islington, both on Remembrance Sunday and Armed Forces Day the number of people attending increased most agreeably with turnouts at three locations on each day, at the Royal Northern Hospital, Islington Green and Spa Fields. The Pearly King and the Pearly Prince were always there too.”
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Islington’s deputy lieutenant (DL) Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes: “I hope that I would not be regarded as an unenlightened Tory – I’m a doctor by profession. I hope I’m not bigoted. Jeremy Corbyn and I were in the House of Commons together and we have always got on, on a personal footing. I respect his views. We never discuss politics, but I’ve got a lovely photo of him and me laughing at some official event.” (c) CGW
Ongoing
Charles has many happy memories of working as DL, but he’d still like to see the Royal Northern Hospital Memorial, at Manor Gardens, renovated. “It’s in dire need of attention and the one remaining war memorial in the country deemed to be at severe risk. Many of the names (1,307) have been destroyed or badly damaged by the elements. The question is how to restore them economically. I worked with Jeremy Corbyn to try and get this done with the War Memorials Trust, English Heritage and the developers, Bellway Homes. I was keen any progress should be on the basis of Bellway Homes’ corporate social responsibility, rather than any legal moves. It is very sad that it is dragging on because it is a very important memory of those in who fell in two world wars protecting our freedom.”
Ten years may have flown past but thanks to Covid-19 a formal goodbye to this DL was delayed until 6 July 2023. It’s an event Charles was particularly looking forward to. “My great sadness after my lifelong connection with Islington was that I had to step down in the middle of Covid, so I didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye or thank people. I hear the council are going to make a presentation at the Armoury House which is the HQ of the HAC. I suggested all the mayors with whom I served and worked so happily will be invited, that’s 10, plus the current mayor, as it was a privilege to join forces with them.” On the day there were six past mayors and the current Islington mayor, Cllr Gary Heather. “Those unable to accept sent very nice messages,” adds Charles.
Many people in Islington have met the DL, so here’s wishing Charles a very happy retirement. Of course, with so many interests he’s still busy. One great passion is how to help people suffering from PTSD – and then there are also the nudges needed to progress repairing the Royal Northern Hospital war memorial in N7 and developing The Ring in EC1. Good luck and thank you.
Since March 2022 Islington’s DL is Paul Herbage, MBE a lifelong volunteer with St John’s ambulance. Charles’ immediate successor, Michael Messinger, had to retire in 2022 after a short tenure when he reached his 75th birthday.
Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola