“My mother, Marion Cargill, was the first mayor of Alcester Town Council and my father, David, was chairman of Alcester Rural District Council before it became part of Stratford District Council, so it does run in the family,” Mark said.
Ironically, there was another first achieved by Mark on the day he became district council chairman last week.
“I attended cabinet at 9am as a councillor and portfolio holder, at 11am I was the district council’s new chairman and by 1pm I was chairing my first full council meeting,” he said.
And there’s another first to consider and it involves Mark and Kathryn’s chains of office because in addition to their mayor and chairman chains they also possess a consort chain for civic occasions, taking the number of chains involved to four. As Mark explains.
“For example, at tomorrow’s mayor making at Stratford Town Hall, Kathryn is invited as mayor of Alcester and I will be her consort but when I’m doing council chairman duties, Kathryn will become my consort so that means four chains in total.”
After lockdown which had such an impact on communities, Mark and Kathryn are looking forward to the summer and want to attend as many events as possible. They also have charitable causes which they will continue to support - Mark’s will focus on dementia societies in and around Alcester and the RNLI as he was an officer in the Merchant Navy for 11 years. He says it’s “fantastic” the RNLI has saved 140,000 lives over the last 200 years.
Kathryn supports the Plus 5 project which involves Alcester Academy and Marathon Kids and it aims to encourage young people and teenagers to enjoy physical exercise and put back five years on their lives which they risk losing if they follow a sedentary lifestyle.