President

The President’s Jewel

Each year a person of standing in the county is invited to be Honorary President of The Devonshire Association.

A president’s year of office commences at the Annual General Meeting (held as part of the Annual DA Conference). The outgoing President chairs the AGM and invests the incoming President with the silver-and-enamel ‘President’s Jewel’, given to the Association in 1935 by Lady Radford. The new President then gives a talk on a Devon subject of his or her choosing, which is normally published as a keynote address in the forthcoming Transactions.

The President also conceives and organises the President’s one-day symposium assisted by the Executive Committee.

Current President 2019–2020

John Allan, BA, MPhil, FSA has been Consultant Archaeologist to the Dean & Chapter of Exeter Cathedral since 1990. He is also Archaeological Adviser to Glastonbury Abbey, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Senior Hon. Research Fellow of the University of Exeter and Past President of the Devon Archaeological Society.

For twenty years (1984–2004) he was Curator of Antiquities at Exeter Museum. He has served as Joint Editor of the international journal Post-Medieval Archaeology and Editor (1984–1997) of the Devon Archaeological Society, and is currently the President of the Friends of Devon Archives. He has also been a leading specialist in the field of medieval pottery in South-West England since the 1970s. He has published one book, an edited volume and about 140 papers on different aspects of the medieval and later archaeology of South-West England including ceramics, church architecture, numismatics, domestic buildings and cultural links to Brittany.

He lives in Exeter with his wife Jill, and has two sons and two grandchildren who also live in the city.

Photo: Antony T. Buller

Coming President 2020–2021

Clare Broom has a professional and academic background in nature conservation, planning and countryside management. She spent thirty years working as an academic in the University sector, and as Head of an Environmental Science Department lead a small agri-environment research team. She was Dean of Faculty at the University of Plymouth’s Seale Hayne campus and subsequently served as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University. She has held DEFRA appointments on two of the Environment Agency’s Regional Flood and Coastal Committees. She has also worked as an environmental consultant.

Clare was a member of the National Trust’s Board of Trustees (2011–2017) and Chair of the Trust’s South West Regional Advisory Board and its predecessor (2006–2016). She served as an elected member of the Council of the National Trust for nine years until October 2018. She has been a Trustee of the Devon Wildlife Trust.

Clare lives in West Devon near Yelverton. Her family connections with Devon go back over two hundred years. She is a Deputy Lieutenant of Devon.

Photo: Antony T. Buller

Former Presidents

Some details of our most recent presidents are here.

List of all our Presidents

Including the locations of the AGMs at which they were inaugurated.