A PERSONAL friend of the Queen has been chosen as Suffolk's new Lord Lieutenant, following the retirement of Lord Belstead.Lord Tollemache, who lives at Helmingham Hall near Debenham, will become the permanent representative of the Crown in the county, appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

A PERSONAL friend of the Queen has been chosen as Suffolk's new Lord Lieutenant, following the retirement of Lord Belstead.

Lord Tollemache, who lives at Helmingham Hall near Debenham, will become the permanent representative of the Crown in the county, appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

The announcement, made by Downing Street, means that the fifth Baron Tollemache will be responsible for officially greeting and escorting the sovereign and senior members of the Royal Family when they visit the county.

He said: "I feel very honoured and delighted to have been appointed to succeed Lord Belstead and look forward very much to meeting as many people as possible and seeing as much of our wonderful county of Suffolk as I can."

Lord Tollemache, who has been Vice-Lord Lieutenant since 1994, was born in 1939. He was educated at Eton and was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards from 1959 to 1962, serving in Kenya and the Gulf.

When, as the Hon Timothy Tollemache, he married Alexandra Meynell at the Guards' Chapel in Wellington Barracks, London, in February 1970, guests included Prince Charles, Princess Anne, the Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess George of Denmark.

A descendant of the Tollemache brewing family, he resigned as a director of Tolly Cobbold in 1989, along with Patrick Cobbold, soon after the company was sold to former boxer George Walker's leisure empire Brent Walker.

Lord Tollemache, who is 64 this year, is involved in numerous local and charitable organisations. He is President of Suffolk Historic Churches Trust, the county's Sailors' Soldiers' and Air Forces Association, and Ipswich Citizen's Advice Bureau. He is patron of both Suffolk Accident Rescue Service and East Suffolk Association for the Blind, and Vice Patron of Suffolk Preservation Society.

Most of a lord lieutenant's duties are ceremonial, mainly associated with the military – particularly reserve forces – the lay magistracy, and making presentations and honours on behalf of the Crown.