Malmesbury School students were honoured to receive a visit from a former student, Major General Gwyn Jenkins, OBE.

Major General Gwyn Jenkins OBE attended Malmesbury School in the 1980s before being commissioned into the Royal Marines.

He inspected a parade in his honour at the school on Thursday, May 23 and spent the afternoon talking to the students about his life in the military and his rise through the ranks to his current role as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff.

Local MP James Gray had previously met Major General Jenkins at an event organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Armed Forces and when he heard that he had attended Malmesbury School, he suggested that the Major General might like to come back and visit the school again.

The students, especially the cadets, were captivated to hear how a former student and member of the local Air Cadet Squadron (992) had risen to become a Major General.

Tim Gilson, executive headteacher said: “It was a real honour for the school and it is always a great pleasure to meet our former students who have gone on to lead such rich, fulfilling lives.

“Major General Jenkins was very generous with his time and spoke to all the cadets on parade and spent an hour answering all their questions which ranged from what the gold braid on his uniform represents to how you formulate a strategy for deployment against insurgents in Afghanistan.”