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.’
‘I couldn’t believe it was a job I got to do’
‘If you grew up in Guernsey and served in the military, this is the ultimate job. I couldn’t believe it was a job I got to do,’ the former Lt-Governor’s secretary and Aide-de-Camp has said.
After almost 14 years in the role, Major Marco Ciotti has retired.
He took on the role in August 2012, having returned to the island after his military service and working in public relations.
Highlights during his tenure included the visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2024, and although the death of the Queen was a sad moment, it was also an event not seen for decades, which required significant planning.
‘Working with the palace team on that was fascinating, it hadn’t happened in 70 years, and it was an amazing time to be doing this job,’ said Mr Ciotti.
‘A lot had to be dusted off and re-learned and explained to islanders because people didn’t know what a proclamation was, where the island proclaims its loyalty to the crown, which is really important because we’re a Crown Dependency.’
Historically, the role was two separate jobs. ‘The ADC role is where people tend to see you more because you’re out escorting the Lt-Governor, and then there’s the ceremonial side with parades, or meeting visiting units from the military. If you’ve been in the army that is the familiar ground,’ he said.
‘The secretary is the employer of the staff within Government House. It’s run like a little business and secretary is like the main officer and adviser to the Lt-Governor across all of his responsibilities.’
During his time, the Lt-Governor has assumed delegated responsibility to grant Royal assent, and bring in laws which would have had to go to the sovereign for approval before.
‘People sometimes don’t realise that the Lt-Governor of Guernsey is the Lt-Governor of three separate jurisdictions within the Bailiwick, which each have their own parliaments, so His Excellency will sit in the States on behalf of the Sovereign, listening on behalf of the crown, but that also involves getting to Alderney and Sark as well,’ he said.
‘All of the things that he takes an interest in and tries to support and promote in Guernsey, he also does in Alderney and Sark, and the secretary has to stay current on those things.’
Mr Ciotti has also had to organise all of the events at Government House, such as receptions and investitures.
‘There’s a team that supports the secretary on that, but sometimes there’s several of those in a week,’ he said.
‘I’m definitely going to miss the team. There’s a lot of nice things we do like investitures and honours, but also with lots of visits that the Lt-Governor goes on you get to go on as well which is really interesting. You get quite a privileged insight into things that are happening around the island.’