Born and raised in Guernsey, Mr Ayres left the island aged 16 to begin his army career and returned three years ago.
‘I left Guernsey after my GCSEs and decided to join the army, and at the time the army had its own sixth form college in Nottinghamshire which was where I did my A-levels at this army boarding school,’ he said.
‘Then I went the Defence Academy at Shrivenham which is where I did my engineering degree, again paid for by the Army, and then I went to Sandhurst.’
During his time at Sandhurst, 9/11 happened, which he said set out of the course for his early career work.
From there he joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
‘The first place I was out was Germany as a second lieutenant platoon commander. I came out of training, was in Germany in 2003 and by February 2003 we were in Kuwait ready to go over the border,’ said Mr Ayres.
‘I did a number of different postings in army units.
‘In the move back to the UK, I did a bit of training as an instructor and then went back out for another tour of Iraq.’
He did a tour of Afghanistan as the operations officer for one of the battalions and and then was promoted to major.
His job role was then more working in headquarters in Andover, but earned an MBE for his work in procurement and operational planning.
A large element was due to his role as the army headquarters’ lead logistics planner for the British Army’s involvement in Exercise Trident Juncture 18, a large Nato exercise in Norway in October 2018.
‘I sort of finished my career, I was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and did three years in the role before moving back to Guernsey in summer 2023,’ said Mr Ayres.
He returned to the island with his wife and two boys, both now settled in school, and spent the past couple of years leading the mechanical maintenance team at Guernsey Electricity.
Family members alerted him to the opportunity at Government House. Coincidentally, Mr Ayres had worked with former Lt-Governor Ian Corder’s son during one of his roles in headquarters.
‘I joined the Army to do something different, see the world and do fun things.
‘I was always outdoorsy, I did a lot with the Scouts growing up in Guernsey, and I knew I wanted to do some kind of engineering,’ he said.
‘It was a very diverse job, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t see.
‘Now I’m excited about the new role.
‘Everyone I’ve spoken to says I have big shoes to fill.’