First High Sheriff of North Yorkshire appointed by King Charles III is to hold special Coronation event

Clare Granger, who has strong links to Harrogate, will host the event on Tuesday, May 9 at her home in High Birstwith.

The event will see guests from across North Yorkshire who represent all walks of life from bishops to MPs, NHS staff to members of the judiciary and charities.

Ms Granger qualified as a solicitor and was amongst the first intake of women at Downing College at Cambridge where she read Law.

She worked in York before changing her career to become a professional artist.

She studied fine art at Harrogate College and portraiture at the Charles Cecil Studio in Florence and has been represented by a London Gallery for 20 years.

Earlier this month Ms Granger, who is also a school governor, a champion of IDAS, the domestic violence charity, and a patron of Henshaws in Harrogate, a charity which supports people with disabilities, took over the role at a ceremony at York Crown Court in the presence of the deputy lieutenant, Philip Ingham, Lady Justice King and Sean Morris, the Recorder of York.

Speaking at the time she said: "I am deeply honoured to have been appointed to this role and I look forward enormously to meeting, thanking and supporting the judiciary, those who work in the emergency services and the wonderful volunteers who are working so hard in our county."

Ms Granger said she would be seeking to raise awareness of the value of the arts in the areas of mental health and the criminal justice system.

“We are all aware how many people are suffering with their mental health particularly following the pandemic,” she said at the time.

"The arts have a huge role to play in helping people to find a way of coping.”

She also spoke of the need to support the work of the police in the county.

High sheriffs represent the monarch in matters relating to law and order whereas lord-lieutenants are the sovereign’s personal and military representatives.