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 2025–26

Nick Powe

Nick is well known to the Devonshire Association as the former custodian of Kents Cavern prehistoric caves, which he ran from 2000-2023. He took up the role following a career in international finance and was the fifth generation of the Powe family to do so since the Victorian excavations which provided scientific proof of the antiquity of humankind in the cavern. Nick encouraged a renewed interest in scientific research at the caves and obtained a number of Gold tourism awards including the Winner of Winners at the 2023 Devon Awards for Excellence.

As the owner of such a significant site, he was a key player in the successful bid to obtain UNESCO status for the Torbay area. He chairs the management organisation of the English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark, a designation covering the three towns, and marine areas, of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. He sits on the European Geoparks Network Coordination Committee and undertakes Geopark evaluation missions around the World for UNESCO.

He has recently been appointed chair of Torquay Museum to oversee a change management programme to secure the Museum’s future. He is a board director of VisitDevon, sits on Exeter Cathedral’s Enterprise Board and is a Deputy Lieutenant for Devon.

September 2025: Inauguration conference, held at Two Bridges, Dartmoor.

Coming President 2026–27

Camilla Hampshire MBE, DL

Camilla Hampshire led Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) for 22 years, stepping back from the role in December 2023. Her position at RAMM was the culmination of a forty-year career in museums and galleries, inspired by her experience as a sixteen-year-old museum volunteer.

Her career history includes roles in Aberdeen, Plymouth, Sheffield and Rotherham. In Sheffield she acted as client project co-ordinator for the development of the city’s Millennium Galleries which opened in April 2001, after which she moved to RAMM to shape plans for its capital development. Early years in Exeter focused on funding bids and building an off-site store to receive the collections moved and safely housed during the museum’s transformation. The refurbishment, extension and redisplay of the museum achieved national recognition as the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2012. The judges described the museum as ‘magical’ and ‘some of the most intelligently considered displays on view in any museum in the UK’. The same ethos informed subsequent work at RAMM, the museum establishing an excellent reputation for the ambition and quality of its work, strong brand and community and organisational partnerships.

Camilla has held a number of non-executive positions supporting other cultural sector organisations at national and regional levels. She is currently President of the Friends of RAMM and Chair of Make Southwest, the Bovey Tracey based education charity championing craft as a lifelong source of creativity, learning and community across the region.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Exeter in 2016 and an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2025. She is a Deputy Lieutenant for Devon.

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.