Greg Hammond
Labours of Love with former RAF Group Captain and RBKC Councillor Greg Hammond
20th October 2020 at 4pm UK time (GMT+1)
Welcoming the fourth of our speakers Greg Hammond, whose teenage obsessions were military history, aircraft and politics. Joining the RAF at 18 as a ‘Cold War Warrior’, he later flew as an E-3D AWACS crew member including on operations around the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Subsequently he was promoted into a number of senior positions, including Station Commander of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at RAF Fylingdales and Deputy Commandant of the RAF College Cranwell. Politics remained a latent interest and Greg almost left the RAF to become an MP in the wake of the expenses scandal in 2009. When he did leave the Service, it seemed natural to continue in public service and follow his political vocation, and he was elected to both the board of his local voluntary party association and to Kensington and Chelsea borough council representing Courtfield ward in South Kensington.
Early in 2018 a voice on my intercom said, “It’s Greg Hammond from the Conservative Party”. Oh-oh I thought. The voice continued on, “I remember last year when I spoke to you with my colleague that you had problems with train noises. I was just wondering how you got on with those and if you needed any help?”. I invited him in to have a chat and I was beyond impressed that he had been going round speaking to ward constituents asking them how he could help them and what he could do for them... instead of just asking them to vote for him. Here was a politician who practised Servant Leadership - an area I’m passionate about, based on a 5000 year old adage from the I Ching, To Lead Truly is to Serve. Greg had my vote.
Greg: “When Lubna asked me for my core values, I was immediately mindful of the core values of the Royal Air Force, which have stayed with me and to which I still hold true: Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence. Many years ago, I heard the Prince of Wales explain his inherited motto ‘Ich Dien’ – I serve – and this was the first time I came across the powerful concept of servant leadership, which also stayed with me. If you add on top of these the values that make me a Conservative politically, you’ve got the cocktail of things which drive me beneath the task-oriented exterior.”
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