Presentation by Christina Spencer - Bibby Archivist

Christina Spencer, was born in Leipzig in the former East Germany and is the Archivist for Bibby Line Group, having worked for them for the past 25 years. Prior to joining Bibbys she worked for 20 years for the German Foreign Office in this country, which included being seconded to all the major police forces and courts covering an area from Birmingham to Carlisle. In 2005 she was awarded by the German Government the Distinguished Service Medal of the German Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) – the equivalent of an MBE – for services to Anglo-German friendship, and in 2009 the Lord Mayor of the City of Liverpool made her an ‘Honorary Scouser’ – a title she shares with the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, as well as Wasily Petrenkov (the Conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic); the Lord Mayor of the City of Cologne, and one or two others. Christina is a Rotarian member of RC West Derby and a PHF, she is married to husband Peter, who is Rotarian in RC North Wirral. Their two daughters are also in Rotary. Her talk ‘What Next’ is all about her career from total linguistic failure to becoming a UN interpreter. She worked for 20 years for Merseyside Police and Courts.

ROTARY CLUB OF RHYL The remarkable switch-back life of a young East German-born girl, who eventually overcame her distaste for learning English to become a hugely sought-after translator and interpreter, was graphically recounted in an absorbing talk at Faenal Fawr. Introduced by past President Keith Roberts, guest speaker Christina Spencer, herself a member of the Rotary Club of West Derby, took her fascinated audience through the maze of experiences that had punctuated her remarkably colourful life. An academic success as a schoolgirl, apart from her enduring antipathy for the study of English, led to her seek a career in artistic design but she soon found herself featuring on the front pages of countless regional, national and international newspapers and magazines, as the chosen glamorous face of several major high profile German companies of global repute. Thwarted in her efforts to find a path into her preferred choice of a career by the deficiency in her discarded English linguistic skills, Christina decided the only solution was to come to England and confront her handicap head-on. Gaining a place at Liverpool University and grabbing the opportunity to redeem her limitations, opened the door to a dramatic life-change as she abandoned her artistic aspirations to concentrate on the widening horizons as an accomplished translator and interpreter. The attractions of her invaluable talents were not lost on the German government, including its Secret Service, or on Merseyside Police, who were among the many seeking her coveted services with considerable frequency. Her wide-ranging commissions even ran to acting for the German FA when soccer giants Bayern Munich were paired against Liverpool in European Cup action at Anfield, not to mention innumerable hush-hush trips under police escort for high-octane assignments at courts, prisons and even inside a converted old truck, packed with unimaginable hi-tech gadgetry worthy of a scene from an 007 movie. In between this frenetic life, Christina found time to marry husband Peter, a fellow Rotarian, who was himself in the packed Faenol Fawr audience to hear President Mike Parry and past President Rob Brocklehurst express on behalf of the fascinated listeners, the club’s genuine appreciation for one of the most riveting talks of recent years.