Stafford's highest honour went to Sir Ian and Lady Jane Dudson on 8 September, in what the council believes is its first joint award. Churchill got it in 1946.

Stafford Borough Council has granted its highest honour to Sir Ian Dudson, the former Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire, and his wife Lady Jane Dudson. The council believes it is the first time the Freedom of the Borough has been given to two people jointly.

The resolution was passed at the Council meeting held at County Buildings on Martin Street on Tuesday 8 September. It was the first item of business. The minutes record it in one line: “that Sir Ian and Lady Jane Dudson be granted freedom of the Borough of Stafford.”

The couple then received the Freedom Scroll from the Mayor, Councillor Mark Winnington, and signed the council’s Freedom of the Borough book, which is 126 years old.

Lady Dudson said the award was a “huge honour” and had “brought a tear to my eye”.

Who they are

Sir Ian Dudson was Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire from 2012 to 2025, the monarch’s representative in the county, and was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 2010. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 2025 New Year’s Honours, an award made for personal service to the Crown.

The council’s leader, Councillor Aidan Godfrey, led the tributes. He said the couple “have given exceptional service and made outstanding contributions to the local community, organisations and charities during their long and distinguished service to Stafford Borough and the county as a whole”.

Councillor Jeremy Pert, the leader of the opposition, said they had a “down to earth approach to everyone they came in touch with”, adding: “They have a genuine interest in people and hugely supportive of the voluntary sector.”

Sir Ian responded to the tributes at the meeting. The minutes do not record what he said.

The council has handed out two Freedoms in two months

This is the second Freedom of the Borough granted in Stafford this summer. In July the council gave it to Alderman Jack Kemp, a former leader of the authority who served more than 50 years as a borough councillor. That resolution was also taken as the first item of a Council meeting, on 21 July.

Before this year, the names on the list were spread very thinly.

Timeline of recent holders of the Freedom of Stafford Borough: Winston Churchill in 1946, Joe Clarke in 2016, Alderman Jack Kemp in July 2026, and Sir Ian and Lady Jane Dudson in September 2026.

Winston Churchill was given the Freedom in 1946, to recognise his leadership during the war. The canoe slalom paddler Joe Clarke received it in 2016 after his gold medal in Rio, in front of what the council puts at more than 10,000 people at the Stafford Christmas lights switch-on.

What the Freedom of the Borough actually gives you

Nothing, in law. That is worth saying plainly, because the honour sounds as though it should come with something attached.

The power sits in section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972. It lets a council admit as honorary freemen or freewomen “persons of distinction and persons who have, in the opinion of the Council, rendered eminent services to the Borough”, which is the wording the council quoted in its own report.

Two conditions come with it:

  • The resolution needs at least two-thirds of the members voting on it.
  • It has to be taken at a meeting specially convened for the purpose, with notice of the object of the meeting given in advance.

The chief executive, Tim Clegg, issued the summons for the 8 September meeting on 28 August, and the Freedom item was listed first on the agenda. Thirty-two councillors are recorded as present for all or part of the meeting, alongside the Mayor, with apologies from seven. The minutes do not record the numbers voting.

Subsection (10) of the same section is the part most people do not know about. It says in terms that admission as an honorary freeman “does not confer on that person any of the rights” that belonged to freemen under the older law. The scroll, the book and the title are the whole of it.

What it means for you

For most residents this changes nothing practical, and that is rather the point of a civic honour. It is the one thing a borough council can give that costs nothing and cannot be bought.

It is worth knowing that the council handing these out may not exist for much longer. Stafford Borough Council was due to be abolished in 2028 and folded into a new South and Mid Staffordshire unitary authority, although that reorganisation is currently paused while the government reviews the programme. The borough’s mayoralty, its regalia and its honorary freedoms are all creatures of the council that holds them.

If you want to see the record for yourself, the council publishes the agenda and minutes of every meeting on its own committee pages, and they routinely carry detail that the press releases leave out. The 8 September meeting also dealt with the new Stafford Town Council and with the government’s changes to planning delegation.

Sources