Thursday 23 July 2009 morning ceremony

Gerald Sturtridge (LLD)

Born in 1941, and educated first at Truro School in Cornwall and later at the University of Bristol, Gerald’s early career was as a graduate apprentice in the aviation engineering sector. However, in 1965 he had a change of direction and took articles with Chartered Accountants, Grace, Darbyshire and Todd, a forerunner of KPMG. In 1974 he accepted the offer of a partnership with KPMG and moved to Exeter to open the new office. On his retirement from public practice in 1997, the office had grown in size to nearly 100 people.

Throughout his accounting career Gerald was always an enthusiastic participant in civic and charitable life, holding a number of high profile positions. These included the Chairmanship of the Institute of Directors in Devon and Cornwall, Chairmanship of the Prince’s Youth Business Trust in Devon and Cornwall, Treasurer and vice chairman of Hospiscare, Chairmanship of the Exeter Business Forum and The Devon Community Foundation, Director of the Devon and Exeter Arts Centre, Trustee of The Northcott Trust, Governor of Exeter Cathedral School, Membership of the Appointments Board of the University of Exeter and Member of the Exeter Health Authority.

Since 1997 Gerald has undertaken a variety of non-executive directorships with companies as diverse as waste disposal, the provision of healthcare, property development and the running of a long-established pop group.

Latterly the majority of his free time has been taken up by his work with the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. He was appointed a non-executive director of the Trust in October 1998 and reappointed in October 2002 for a further 4 years. In March 2004, he was appointed vice chairman of the Trust and assumed the chairmanship of both the Governance and Audit committees. He also chairs the Clinical Excellence Awards Committee and sits on a number of consultant appointment advisory and staff re-grading panels.

Since admission of the Trust to Foundation status, he has sat on the Foundation Trust Finance Facility, the national body responsible for recommending, or not, that the Department of Health make available loans to trusts for capital projects.

Gerald is married with one son and lives in Exeter.

Clive Stafford Smith (LLD)

Clive Stafford Smith was born in Cambridge, England in 1959. He attended Radley College in Abingdon between 1973-1978, followed by the University of North Carolina where he was awarded a B.A. in Political Science. In 1984, he qualified to practice law by taking a professional doctorate at Columbia Law School in New York.

Clive is probably best known for his work as Founder and Director of Reprieve, a UK charity that fights for the lives of people facing the death penalty and other human rights violations. Reprieve focuses on the cases of innocent people who are mentally ill or learning disabled, women, racial and ethnic minorities, those unjustly on death row and those detained out of reach of the law in the 'war on terror'. He has most recently been involved in assisting with the coordination of the litigation on behalf of all prisoners in Guantánamo Bay and helping to coordinate the team of lawyers to secure free legal representation for all 520 prisoners.

He has been honoured internationally for his work receiving the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to humanity in 2000; Honorary Doctorate of Laws, University of Wolverhampton, 2001; Honorary Doctor of Laws, University College London; Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Staffordshire 2006; Honorary Doctor of Laws, Oxford Brookes University 2008; the Lifetime Achievement Award, The Lawyer Magazine UK April 2003; The Law Society 2003; Benjamin Smith Award, ACLU of Louisiana 2004; Gandhi Peace Award 2005; Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award 2008; International Freedom of the Press Award 2009, Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani.

Clive has authored numerous publications about the death penalty and associated issues and been involved in a number of television documentaries.