Former Chief of Defence Staff to Deliver First Jesuit Talk

General the Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, will be delivering the first Farm Street Talk on Thursday, 1 February 2007.

Entitled 'Revisiting Traditional Thinking on the Just War', the lunchtime talk will be chaired by Sir Michael Quinlan, the former Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence and now a Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

General Lord Guthrie was born in 1938, and was educated at Harrow School before entering to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.  He served in the Welsh Guards for seven years, after which he joined the SAS and served in the Middle East, Malaysia and East Africa.

Throughout the 1970s and early '80s, Lord Guthrie pursued an illustrious career in the British Army, rising to Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps in 1986.  Prior to becoming Chief of the Defence Staff (1997 - 2001), he was the Commander of the 1st British Corps, the Northern Army Group, the British Army of the Rhine, and the Chief of the General Staff.  He is currently Colonel of The Life Guards, Gold Stick to The Queen and Colonel Commandant of the SAS.

Married with two grown up sons, Lord Guthrie is a practicing Catholic and a Knight of Malta.  He is involved in several Catholic charities as well as being President of the Army Benevolent Fund; Action Research; Federation of London Youth Clubs and a Governor of The Charterhouse, Clerkenwell.

Farm Street Church has a long tradition of eminent speakers, and Parish Priest, Fr William Pearsall SJ, says he is delighted they will be welcoming the former Chief of the Defence Staff next month. "Lord Guthrie has held a unique list of positions in the Armed Forces, and will be able to bring us a very personal Christian perspective on the theory of a 'Just War'", he says.

'Revisiting Traditional Thinking on the Just War', the first Farm Street Talk, will take place in the hall of the Jesuit church at 114 Mount Street, London W1K 3AH at 12.30pm on Thursday, 1 February.  For further details, e-mail FarmStreetTalks@gmail.com


 Farm Street Church