Meet the Trustees

Peter Sands, chairman

Baylis Trust chairman Peter Sands has lived in Maidenhead all his life and has run Queen Street retail furnishing business RH Sands & Sons since January 1966. He is the third generation of his family running the business, which was started by his grandfather in 1908.

Active in the town’s business community, Peter has been an executive committee member of the Chamber of Commerce since 1968, was president in 1974 and has chaired the chamber’s planning sub-committee since 1978.

He has been a trustee and board member of the Citizens Advice Bureau since the late 1980s and is a past chairman of Berkshire Valuation Tribunal service, considering business rates appeals and council tax banding appeals.

 A founder member of the Rotary Club of Maidenhead Thames, Peter is also a member of a number of local groups including the Civic Society and Heritage Centre.

Married with three grown-up daughters, he has lived in Bray for 30 years and is a trustee of the Lych Gate Trust and a sidesman at Bray Church.

His long links with the town as a Maidonian mean he is passionate about its future success. 

John Robertson MBE

John’s Robertson’s career started in financial and company secretarial positions in Manchester where he qualified as a Chartered Secretary in 1967. His first involvement in the regional press industry was in 1968 in East Anglia.

He moved to Berkshire in 1980 when he was appointed managing director of Oxley and Son (Windsor) Ltd, the then proprietors of the Windsor Slough & Eton Express.

From there he moved in 1985 to the Newbury Weekly News as managing director (later becoming chairman) where, among other duties, he was responsible for the printing of the Maidenhead Advertiser.

While at Newbury he became heavily involved with the Newspaper Society, the organisation which represents the UK’s local and regional newspapers, serving on many committees and as president in 2003/04. He was appointed MBE in 2006 for services to the newspaper industry.

He served as a director of Baylis Media before becoming a trustee of the Louis Baylis (Maidenhead Advertiser) Trust in January 2011.

John, who lives in Maidenhead with his wife, is delighted to be involved in the Trust which is unique in the regional press industry and, as well as supporting many deserving causes, is dedicated to retaining the independence of the town’s newspaper – a cause in which he passionately believes.

Peter Murcott

Peter Murcott has lived and worked in Maidenhead for many years and has close connections with the community. 

He has been a trustee of the Baylis Trust since October 1993. Peter is a very active Rotarian and a founder Member of the Rotary Club of Maidenhead Thames. 

He has also been a trustee of the local mobility charity, People to Places, since 1989 and is its current chairman. 

Peter is a trustee of the Rotary Club of Maidenhead Thames’s Millennium Trust which administers the Rotary Help In Illness Fund in the Royal Borough.

He is currently a consultant to and former senior partner of chartered accountants Hale & Company LLP. 

He is a past treasurer and council member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Association of Taxation Technicians and a founder member and past master of the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers.

Married with one daughter and a charming granddaughter, Peter is a keen golfer and long-standing member and past captain of Temple Golf Club.

Pat Lattimer

Pat moved to Maidenhead 35 years ago, though she later discovered her father’s family had until the early 1900s been Maidonians. 

A former manager of Maidenhead Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), Pat is married with four grown up children who all attended the Furze Platt Schools.

Voluntary work has been important in her life. From a first volunteering role as Brownie pack leader aged 12, she went on to visit the Middle East as an 18-year-old unqualified teacher of English with the then fledgling Voluntary Service Overseas. 

She trained as an adviser at Maidenhead CAB in 1986.  Four years later she joined the management team and in 1994 became the manager, a role that gave her opportunities to gain insight and understanding of the structures of the borough community: its statutory provisions, its local government functions and its exceptionally vibrant voluntary sector.  

In 2010 Pat retired from full time CAB work. This has allowed her more time to devote to other voluntary roles including Rotary and several other essential local voluntary services. However, she has since joined the Slough CAB team in a part-time role.

A recent new and exciting volunteering role was that of Gamesmaker at the Olympic rowing and canoeing events at Dorney Lake.  She is currently also a governor at Larchfield School.