1st October 2003 - Brian Cousins
Brian is a Committee member of the Probus Club of Ewell and is a Past President
"Yes Minister"
Brian Cousins who is a member of the Ewell Club and a past President gave a high speed presentation as his life as a civil servant with a high level of involvement in government policy and administration. Brian recalled that after his service in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying the early jet aircraft the Meteor, when he completed his commission he entered the Civil Service as a "Fast Track" candidate or as he said the Mandarin route or much later called "The Sir Humphrey" system!
During his period of service he had sixteen different job specifications in at least seven different physical locations. Ranging over Devonport, Belfast, Malta, Chessington, Lee-on Solent, Germany and would you believe Whitehall, London.
In summary Brian says
"Very rarely dull but often strenuous and mentally taxing"
During that time he met, worked with, worked for at least thirty different Ministers: - including Hestletine, Healey, Geoffrey Johnston-Smith (as his Private Secretary for two years) John Profumo, John Stanley, Lord Mackay, Lord Irvine Denny and other not so distinguished or well known politicians.
After working in various locations for the Admiralty between the mid-fifties and early sixties, including overseas postings to Malta and Northern Ireland, (well I guess that this is overseas!). By this time Brian had risen in the hierarchy to a Private Secretary to the Government's Permanent Secretary to the War Office.
In this posting he had dealings with John Profumo and his charming wife Valerie Hobson, indeed related the sad departure of Profumo after the story broke about the call girl scandal and the Christine Keeler affair.
[In 1963 Mr. John Profumo MP Secretary of State for War was accused of having had a liason with Christine Keeler. Mr. Profumo denied there was any truth in the story. He did so in a personal statement in the House of Commons. Later he admitted that his statement was untrue and he was forced to resign from his position and from Parliament. There followed an enormous public controversy and grave public disquiet. This centred on the alleged threat to national security in that Mr. Profumo had been sharing Christine Keeler as a mistress with the Soviet naval attache. The government of the day decided to establish a non-statutory, ad hoc tribunal sitting behind closed doors, whose sole Member was Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls acting in effect as detective, inquisitor, advocate and judge. The Denning report was generally accepted by the public despite his inquiry’s unusual procedure.]
Then further years more "learning" the trade as a Finance and Personal Administrator, until return to the private office as Private Secretary to the Minister for the Army, Geoffrey Johnston-Smith 1971 -1973.
Brian recounted humorous stories, perhaps not best circulated on the World Wide Web! But if one has viewed the television series "Yes Minister" they certainly ring a bell of truth. His account of the world trip of the Minister is worth recounting, where the party of only four had an RAF Comet aircraft with full crew to transport them around the globe, the Comet being equipped for VIPs with full beds for comfortable travel!
Putting into Nepal at Kathmandu airport was breath taking due to the short landing strip for four engines commercial jet aircraft.
But to visit the Gurka Regiment involved a short take off aircraft the Short Skyvan, this only had one pilot, so Brian with his pilots experience joined the captain and after showing he could handle the craft, the full time pilot left the cockpit and controls under Brian's hand.
He even landed the plane at their destination.
The captain when he chatted with the Minister recalls the Minister got rather agitated when he realise his private secretary was the only person in the cockpit!
He then had a period (1973-76) as Civil Secretary to the British Forces in Germany, in this capacity he was able to go super sonic in an English Electric Lightening aircraft (left), it seems there are indeed perks to be had if you are high enough up the Civil Service ladder. He even had trips in a two seater Hunter and the Hawker "Jump" jet, there were many in the Ewell Club who were green with envy.
In 1976-79 he moved as Head of Defence Sectariat in the Ministry of Defence. This was over the period of the "Winters of Discontent" a segment of history where the armed forces were called upon to cover the strike actions of key areas. Such as the Fire Service, Ambulance Service, Veterinary emergency supplies (Bull semen, amid healthy laughter), etc. The good will of service chiefs and the reluctance of Ministers to take action often caused anguish and indeed friction, in this area the Civil Servants were often caught between a rock and a hard place.
Perhaps the most fraught incident was the siege of the Iranian Embassy and the subsequent storming and rescue by the SAS, it was interesting to hear the background story about the wiliness and efficiency of the SAS and the key role of the then Home secretary.
It was during this period that Brian was invited to lunch with a TV producer and offered the post as advisor to the programme, at this stage the script was only in embryo form without title. After much consideration he declined and suggested a colleague who had just retired and would not be tied by Civil Service restrictions.
Brian to his chagrin later found this was the most successful TV series which came out under the title "Yes Minister", hence the title of this talk.
Brian presented the meeting with a rapid summary of many years work at a speed worthy of a jet pilot, the vote of thanks endorsed this and the afternoon was rounded off by a round of applause worthy of the talk.
