In this week’s Wiltshire Gazette & Herald, you ran an article about the appointment of David Hempleman Adams, as the new High Sheriff of the Shrievalty of Wiltshire – Wiltshire and Swindon council areas.

I am writing just to explain that Lady Sarah Gooch is the current High Sheriff, and will continue in that office until towards the end of March next year.

The nomination ceremony is the start of the appointment procedure, which goes back many centuries, and should result in Mr Hempleman Adams being High Sheriff next year.

In the nomination ceremony mentioned in your article, three people are nominated to be the next High Sheriff and the names read out to the Court. These three names, now on the roll of High Sheriffs in nomination, are presented to the Queen in Council in early March 2016. Her Majesty, with a silver bodkin, ‘pricks’ one of the names, i.e appoints the High Sheriff for Wiltshire for the following Shrieval Year.

Her Majesty can prick any one of the three names, but in practice, the name at the head of the roll is usually pricked. Assuming convention is followed at the pricking ceremony, Mr Hempleman Adams will be Wiltshire’s High Sheriff from the end of March next year.

I am writing to explain the nomination procedure, as it is an annual event, so that next year you can explain that the nomination is part of a two-part procedure.

It might be helpful if it could be confirmed in the Gazette & Herald that Lady Gooch still has still some four months in office as High Sheriff to avoid confusion.

DAVID LEWIS, Under Sheriff of Wiltshire