In opening a meeting at Parliament House on 28 February, 2007 to hear the Reverend Fred Nile speak on creeping republicanism and the campaign to return the Governor to Government House, I took the opportunity of introducing our new full time Executive Director, Thomas Flynn, to supporters of ACM. This was reported in the Sun Herald on 4 March 2007 by their senior parliamentary commentator, Alex Mitchell, under the headline “Monarchists' new recruit.”
Thomas Flynn is an Oxford classics graduate, which students of the history of the British Empire will know provides an unrivalled preparation for public life, administration and service to the common good. (A glance at the generous praise from around the world about the surprisingly small Indian Civil Service –at any time normally around 1000 –who so well administered the whole subcontinent should persuade any doubters. Some are mentioned in David Gilmour’s excellent account of the Service in “The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj,” 2005) As Mr. Mitchell wrote in the Sun Herald , Mr. Flynn returned to Sydney in August after working for a British pro-life campaign group. He is a son of Christopher and Paula Flynn and a nephew of the late Father Jeremy Flynn, a greatly loved priest who was a prominent supporter of the role of the Crown in the Australian Constitution.
Mr. Flynn’s first public function was to introduce the Reverend Fred Nile at the Parliament House meeting. In his introduction, he made the telling point that whatever the politicians in New South Wales may do about their Oath of Office, they remain in allegiance to the Crown.
At another function recently for the London journalist and author of “Londinistan”, Melanie Phillips, Thomas Flynn spoke soon after the Hon. Tony Abbott. In the mandatory personal introduction, he noted that Mr. Abbott had been a predecessor in the office Mr. Flynn now holds. So as the successor to Tony Abbott and Kerry Jones, we welcome Thomas Flynn to our ranks, and look forward to his contribution to our work in preserving, protecting and defending our constitutional system, the role of the Crown in it and our Flag.