As the domestic sports world begins to turn its eye towards the summer transfer season, JMECA can report that it has landed a premier league standard appointment for its new Operations Manager post. And that is true in more senses than one. Gabrielle Higgins is in the England squad for her chosen sport. She was introduced to her new JMECA ‘team mates’ at their March meeting this week.
Gabrielle has plenty of evidence for her observation that when she looked at the job description, “it looked like it could have been written for me.” A twelve-year career as a barrister, specialising in property law was succeeded by almost nine years as the Diocesan Secretary at the Diocese of Chichester in England. That role nowadays demands a thorough understanding of the requirements of Companies House and the Charity Commission, as well as the responsibilities of safeguarding – all of which expertise will be put to good use at JMECA.
I can testify that she is an able communicator. Her barrister courtroom skills have not deserted her either. A charming and friendly manner left me with the feeling that at the end of our interview for this article, she probably knew more about me than I about her!
She has been a high-flyer from the outset, studying Classics and gaining a first in both Mods and Greats (those who know, know) with the University Comparative Philology prize in each. She says that her career in the law was ‘random,’ rather than vocational. She enjoyed the ‘detective’ work of piecing a case together but was less impressed with the adversarial context of the courtroom. She found it “very cost orientated.” With a striking turn of phrase, she described the process as, “shuffling money between rich people and syphoning some of it off as it went past.”
The move to Chichester came as the result of a decision that the time had come to do something socially useful, and particularly something useful for the Church. Brought up in a clerical family (her father was Dean of Ely) she was familiar with Anglican ways but was given the space to develop faith at her own pace, experiencing both ‘high’ and ‘evangelical’ expressions of Anglicanism during her university years, and there moving from ‘cultural Anglicanism’ to an owned and personal faith. Her work at Chichester came to confirm that this was her vocation.
Her sporting achievements might be said to have begun as cox of the Merton College Men’s Boat Club for four years, during which time she coxed the First VIII to win blades twice and the Second VIII to win blades once. However, her chief love is croquet. As a player she was silver medallist in the Women’s World Singles Championship in 2015 and 2023. She has represented England in open World Singles Championships five times and won a string of other awards. At management level she was treasurer of the World Croquet Federation for three years and is Secretary of Croquet England. She is a current member of the England squad of fifteen from whom six will be chosen as team members for the next World Team Championships.
She is looking forward to learning more about the wider Anglican communion, and particularly in the areas served by JMECA. It may be no coincidence that Egypt is one of the world’s top croquet nations! Gabrielle begins work on May 1st.