Helen Fry
A Conversation with Sir Nick Young on his Career with the Red Cross
Summary
Sir Nick Young returns to Lockdown to discuss with Helen Fry his career working with Sue Ryder. He also discusses his important work as chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief and then Head of the Red Cross. His was a fascinating career and one that often took him to difficult parts of the world in times of conflict.
Helen Fry
Helen Fry has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage, and spies, as well as MI9 escape and evasion. She is the foremost authority on the “secret listeners” who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Helen is the official biographer of MI6 spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. She has also extensively written about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain during WWII. Helen has appeared in a number of documentaries and has provided advisory services for TV and drama. She also appears regularly in media interviews and podcasts. Helen is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI) and serves as a trustee of both the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum and the Medmenham Collection. She works in London.
Nick Young
Sir Nick Young’s distinguished career began as a corporate lawyer with one of the “Magic Circle” law firms. After moving to East Anglia, he discovered his vocation as a charity worker, first with Sue Ryder and Leonard Cheshire, before becoming chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, and then chief executive of the British Red Cross, stepping down in 2014 after 13 years. He was knighted for services to cancer care in 2000 and received the Queen’s Badge of Honour in 2013. Now in retirement, he remains a charity trustee, adviser, and consultant.
Well, you’ll appreciate that I stepped down from the Red Cross 10 years ago now, so I’m not involved day-to-day in the work, but you will understand, I’m sure, Sharon, that in order to get access, one has to have consent. I mean, the Red Cross I know will be deep in discussions and negotiations with Hamas and, indeed, as it has been in all the, in discussion with all the parties to that conflict and every conflict, trying to help them understand what the Red Cross exists to do, that it is there for the victims of conflict, including the hostages currently being held in Gaza and seeking to visit them. But of course, if you don’t get permission to do that, if that’s not allowed by, whether it’s Hamas or whether it’s a government involved in a conflict, then there’s really not very much, if anything, that the Red Cross can do except going back again and again and again and trying to get access. And I’m sure that’s what my colleagues will be trying to do. Because it is the mission of the Red Cross, set out in the Geneva Conventions to do everything it can to ensure that the victims in any conflict, whoever they are, whatever side they’re on, are looked after in accordance with the rules set out in those conventions.