Anna Quarendon is taking over as chair of the Marlborough Brandt Group (MGB). She succeeds former diplomat Tim David who has come to the end of his four year term.
MBG was founded thirty years ago and its main aim has been to maintain and develop Marlborough’s link with the village of Gunjur in The Gambia. Anna visited Gunjur in January last year and soon afterwards became one of the group’s trustees.
Anna is a senior producer at BBC Wiltshire and has lived in the county for last twenty-six years. She’s worked for the radio station since 1999 and is currently producing the daily Morning Show.
For more about Anna Quarendon, see our profile of her in Marlborough News Online’s features section: “How the 80th birthday of Anna Quarendon’s mother was celebrated in Africa.”
Her appointment as chair was ratified at the group’s annual general meeting on Thursday. Anita Bew, who is the group’s secretary and first visited Gunjur in 1985 and since 1990 has been there at least once a year, told Marlborough News Online:
“I am delighted Anna is our new chair. She’s got lots of ideas – especially about fund raising. She’ll be a breath of fresh air – she’ll be great.”
One of Anna’s first tasks will be to welcome six Gunjurians on a month long visit to Marlborough. They arrive on Tuesday (June 21), will be staying with hosts in the area and learning about life here.
They will spend time at the College and at St John’s School – and are going on a geography field trip with St John’s students to Lulworth in Devon. They will be guests of honour at MBG’s Summer Garden Party held next Sunday (June 26) in the beautiful gardens of the Master’s Lodge at the college.
Anna looks forward to their visit – and to her four years as MBG’s chair: “I will not forget my visit to Gunjur, and I hope their visit to Marlborough will be similarly memorable.”
“It’s taken a lot of hard work to get them here and it will take a lot of hard work to achieve some of the other ambitions we might have, but let’s be ambitious. I hope we can make the next four years fruitful. I’m looking forward to it.”
