Mrs Penelope Escombe made her declaration as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire at the Crown Court in Northampton on March 25th.

Penelope is a Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and a Magistrate on the Corby Bench and was appointed a Member of the British Empire in the 2008 New Year Honours for her services to the community. She lives in Brigstock and was married for 38 years to Rowland Escombe who was both Chairman of Escombe MacGrath Shipping Agents and Brokers and a main Board Director of P&O SN Company. Penelope was widowed in 2009.

 

Early in her life she trained for the stage at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and also at Triangle Secretarial College. She worked at Lambeth Palace for the Archbishop of Canterbury's Librarian for three years, was personal assistant to a Member of Parliament, to the Chairman of a leading public relations consultancy and a management recruitment advertising agency and to the Legal Director of Rio Tinto Zinc. In more recent years she has been active in many areas including the justice system, education, charitable work and the Church of England.

She was Chairman of the Corby Bench between 1992 and 1998, a Member of Northamptonshire Police Authority for ten years, a Member of Northamptonshire Probation Committee for fifteen years and a Member of the Northamptonshire Magistrates Courts Commitee for twelve years. She was also a Member of the Lord Lieutenants' Advisory Committee for twelve years - now the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee.

Currently Penelope is a Member of the Governing Council of the University of Northampton and of the University Court. She is an Officer Sister of the Order of St John and has been a Member of the Council for the Order of St John in Northamptonshire since 1977 and is on its fundraising committee. Her charitable activities have also included work for the Prince's Trust and Macmillan Nurses.

Penelope was a Member of the Diocesan Synod for some twenty years and a member of the Deanery Synod and for fifteen years served on the Bishop's Council. Today she is a Churchwarden at St Andrew's Church Brigstock and is a Trustee of Peterborough Cathedral where she has been involved with major fundraising  appeals and where the Trustees are shortly to launch a new endowment appeal.
 
Her family motto is Fortiter ac Sapienter which means Bravely and Wisely and Penelope says she feels this is quite apposite for her theme of Justice during her year as High Sheriff.

Sheriff Photo
Photo by Sylvia Adams

 

Family Crest