Swansea University Honorary Fellowship Dinner

There are some who will tell you that being Lord Mayor or Deputy Lord Mayor involves lots of formal dinners and drink receptions. However, last night was the first one I attended and there do not appear to be many more on the horizon at present for either of us.

In fact, I have attended more choral performances and church services that dinners and continue to be amazed at the wealth of talent in the City.

The Swansea University Honorary Fellowship Dinner is an annual event, staged to honour those who have been recognised by the University for their contribution to society and public life. It was held last night on the three year old Bay Campus just outside the Swansea Council boundary, though the dinner itself was served in a marquee.

The eleven recipients of honorary degrees from Swansea University this year are all exceptional people. All of them have a connection with Swansea or South Wales. They are:

• Mr Eric Jones, a Pontarddulais-born composer renowned for his choral compositions;
• Mr Huw Tregalles Williams OBE, Swansea-born former head of music at BBC Wales and the first Director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales;
• Mr Ian Jones, Morriston-born television executive who was a member of the team who first launched S4C in 1982;
• Mr Howard Morgan, a former Lord Mayor of Swansea who has been associated with Swansea University for over 40 years and who is a trustee of the Swansea University Student Union;
• Professor Donna M Mead OBE, a former High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, who wrote the first undergraduate degree in nursing at Swansea University;
• Ms Eleanor Simmonds MBE, a five times Paralympic Champion whose training base was at the Wales National Pool at Swansea University's International Sports Village;
• Professor Bernard Knight CBE, a leading Welsh pathologist who held the chair of Forensic Pathology in Cardiff until he retired in 1996, and author of about thirty books, including contemporary crime fiction, historical novels about Wales, biography, non-fiction popular works on forensic medicine, twelve medico-legal textbooks and the Crowner John Mysteries series of 12th-century historical mysteries featuring one of the earliest (fictional) coroners in England;
• Mrs Gaynor Richards MBE, Director of Neath Port Talbot Council for Voluntary Service and Chair of Governors of Neath Port Talbot College Group;
• Honourable Shekhar Dutt, a Swansea University graduate who rose to become Defence Secretary for the Government of India and Governor of Chattisgarh province;
• Ms La-Chun Lindsay, the first female managing director of GE Aviation Wales, the largest industrial company in South Wales;
• Professor Ben Shneiderman, the founding director of the Human Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, who has been visiting and encouraging computer scientists at Swansea University ahead of the opening of the £31m Computational Foundry on the Bay Campus.

All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and an honour to be dining alongside such distinguished people.