THE new High Sheriff of Wiltshire has been named as Pewsey landowner and international businessman David Newbigging.

At a brief ceremony at County Hall yesterday Mr Newbigging was appointed as successor to Sir Christopher Benson.

The position of high sheriff is an annual appointment involving a number of ceremonial duties.

He will be supporting four main charities during his year in office: Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, the Kennet Furniture Recycling initiative, Crimebeat and the Wiltshire and Swindon Community Foundation.

Mr Newbigging, who has three grown up children, lives at Fyfield Manor with his wife Carolyn.

Mrs Newbigging is chairman of the Salisbury Festival and is a former director of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

More locally, Mrs Newbigging is a director of Opera-Luna that puts on an opera in Marlborough each summer to raise funds for musical charities.

Mr Newbigging was born in Tientsin in China in 1934 and was sent as a refugee from the Far East to Canada in 1940 after the outbreak of the Second World War. He was commissioned into the King's Own Scottish Borderers for National Service before joining the Far Eastern trading company Jardine, Mattheson and Co in 1954.

He retired from Jardine, Mattheson as its chairman in 1983 after nearly 30 years living and working in Asia.

He has served as chairman or a director of a number of other public companies and served on the executive and legislative councils of the Hong Kong Government and as president of the largest charity in Hong Kong, the Community Chest.

Mr Newbigging also served as chairman of both the General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Tourist Association.

Fyfield Manor was once the home of former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and of the former Devizes Tory MP Sir Charles Morrison.