{"id":186204,"date":"2025-06-15T11:20:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T11:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/186204\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T11:20:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T11:20:19","slug":"ex-salisbury-hospital-chair-astonished-and-humbled-at-obe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/186204\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Salisbury hospital chair \u2018astonished and humbled\u2019 at OBE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Luke March, 74, who lives in Great Durnford, has been recognised for his services to healthcare and charitable causes.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr March chaired the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salisburyjournal.co.uk\/topics\/salisbury-nhs-foundation-trust\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust<\/a> from 2005 to 2014, completing the maximum tenure of nine years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  His career in healthcare also saw him chair the\u00a0NHS Integrated Care Partnership for Berkshire West until 2020.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He previously chaired the\u00a0Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust until March 2015.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr\u00a0March later served as lead\u00a0governor of the South Western Ambulance Trust. His term in that role ended in February 2025.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Outside of healthcare, he was chairman of the National Churches Trust until 2022. He is now the organisation&#8217;s vice-president.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He used to be a lay canon on the Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral and has, for two years, chaired\u00a0the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salisburyjournal.co.uk\/news\/25236836.forme-salisbury-nhs-trust-chair-kings-birthday-honours\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one of four city locals<\/a> included in the 2025 King&#8217;s Birthday Honours.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   style=\"width: 100%;\"\/>Luke March was given an OBE in the 2025 King&#8217;s Birthday Honours, announced on June 13 (Image: Luke March)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI am astonished and humbled by this honour,\u201d Mr March said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cHowever, the real heroes of my life are all those working in healthcare who I have met and admired incessantly over almost 40 years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThey have constantly inspired me to be involved over all these years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cMy experience has taken me through district general hospitals in Hampshire and our great hospital here in Salisbury with its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salisburyjournal.co.uk\/topics\/stars-appeal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stars Appeal<\/a>, to one of the largest teaching hospitals in the City of London, to community care in Hampshire and the East End of London.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cMy final trip has been as lead governor of the South Western Ambulance Trust over recent years whose remarkable ambulance crews will always remain in my memory.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cA further remarkable group are all those who volunteer in health and in another passion of mine the church heritage sector including their community engagement.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cEspecially, I think of all those who tirelessly look after our churches across Wiltshire and beyond, not forgetting of course our great cathedral.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt has been a privilege to serve them all, and throughout all of this, choral music and the outdoors with our dogs keep me motivated, as they have from the very beginning.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr March also\u00a0chairs\u00a0the Building Societies Trust and is a trustee of the Wessex Medical Trust. He is also\u00a0Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke March, 74, who lives in Great Durnford, has been recognised for his services to healthcare and charitable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-186204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114687116758685635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}