Lieutenant-General Andrew Ridgway and his wife Valerie have also revealed that it was a snap decision to come to the Island for a weekend break two years ago which led them to apply for the job, because they liked what they saw so much.
The general arrives with the highest military pedigree – a former commander of the Desert Rats, he led the UN forces in Central Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, he ran the British Army’s budget and for the last three years he was deputy chairman of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee, regularly briefing the Defence Minister and Prime Minister Tony Blair on intelligence issues.
General and Mrs Ridgway will have a tough act to follow, such was the popularity of Air Chief Marshal Sir John Cheshire and Lady Cheshire in the Island, but with their relaxed nature and their evident zest for life, they appear to have all the attributes to be a success in their own right.
General Ridgway has even spoken about the possibility of getting a Jersey team into the Winter Olympics – in the bobsleigh event.
He is a keen supporter of the British Bobsleigh Association and he insists the lack of a mountain in Jersey is not a problem.
He has also shown a quick grasp of some of the important issues facing the Island.
‘One of the points in the draft Strategic Plan will be developing the international personality of the Island and reviewing the constitutional position, and that’s clearly going to be a really interesting area of activity,’ he tells the JEP in today’s Saturday Interview.
General and Mrs Ridgway arrive in the Island on 8 June aboard HMS Tyne and he will be officially sworn in in the Royal Court on 14 June.
