Commemoration Speech 2024 - Alumnae Ruth Waring
Tuesday, 16 July 2024
Queen’s School Commemoration, Chester Cathedral, 3rd May 2024
Ruth Waring FCILT
Good afternoon teachers, parents, alumnae and current students.

It is wonderful to be back here at the Cathedral to tell you more about my time at school and what I have achieved since then. Firstly, I would like to talk briefly about my journeys to and from school, which were on the train. If you are a train girl in the congregation, I can tell you it is something which will stay with you. Being a train girl had so many perks: walking two miles a day with my friends so getting fit and having fun without trying, meeting, talking to and normalising King’s School boys on the train but best of all we had some thing called a Late Pass. Late passes were gold dust because you could be late for assembly. It was literally a Get out of Gaol Free card. The walk back to the station through town allowed for plenty of messing about time too and my friend Fiona, the City Financier who spoke here last year, was a terror for borrowing 5p to buy Milk Chews. Now she borrows billions to buy businesses. To be fair, she did always pay me back.

So what about school? Well, I went to the Queen’s School from Elton Primary, the only girl who took the exam in my year and obviously the only one to attend. It was a tough gig and I was in awe of the Nedham House girls in Removes who seemed so sure of themselves. Perhaps that was the case for many girls in the audience. However, I knew deep down that I had been chosen, I was fortunate. The things about being a Queen’s Girl is that you know you’re clever. There’s no denying that because you passed the exam. Being clever is a great attribute in life. But it doesn’t get you far beyond school without other attributes, and that’s what I feel so pleased that Queen’s gave me so much more. I see this as a diamond shape made up of four smaller diamonds. The one at the base is that we are CLEVER. The next one to the left is that we are taught HOW TO LEARN. So many clever or gifted people do not achieve their potential because they got lazy and rested on their laurels. This is never the case for Queen’s School girls. The cleverest girl is stretched and the middle ranking is encouraged and the so called “bottom group” girls (who, let’s be clear, are still incredibly bright – this only really becomes clear when you leave by the way) are both encouraged and stretched to their full potential. This all involves hard work. That is one of the greatest gifts I got from Queen’s – the school taught me how to learn, and the huge value of hard work. I have taken this into my professional life and – wow – has it paid off.

The right-hand diamond is your Queen’s School NETWORK. Again, this becomes very clear once you leave, but I want to highlight it to you now. You are forming a networking of amazing girlfriends who will be with you for many years. This network will be there to encourage you, to be your cheerleaders, to catch you when you stumble, and to remind you of how amazing you are. We didn’t have the benefit of social media when we left school, but I wrote letters to my friends and we kept in touch WITHOUT THE INTERNET. My two train friends Katy and Fiona kept in touch all the way through living abroad, jobs, boyfriends, marriages, children, juggling, illness and worse. We have helped each other with our careers giving technical advice and support across different professions, and helped our kids make connections which have resulted in them getting jobs. We now have the benefit of a Facebook group with all the other girls there too.  Build this network and cherish it, even when you are really busy. It will be amazing. The reunions are great fun.

The top diamond is the hardest, and one which I have struggled with the most. It is the diamond of CONFIDENCE. I want to give each of you a gift today. It is the gift of confidence, of self-belief. I really struggled to believe in myself at school, and for me the confidence came later in life as I took strength from the three diamonds that Queen’s gave me – my intelligence, my ability to work hard, and my network. That led me to eventually become confident in every aspect of my life. My gift to you is – don’t wait like I did. Be confident now. Read books, listen to podcasts, talk to people whom you trust. Take compliments and truly internalise them. Ignore the negative noise. For it is having confidence which will ignite your life after the Queen’s School and make sure that you skyrocket into space to achieve all you can.

So, what have I been doing since I left school? What have I done which qualified me to stand here and talk to you all today? I work in logistics. That is the world of warehousing and lorries. It’s an unusual world for a woman to work in and I have made it my own. I love logistics. It is a fast-paced world where intelligence, hard work, networking and confidence all come together and – if you’ve got them all – women can truly thrive.

After a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Edinburgh University I got a job as a graduate trainee for DHL. I was one of 10 women and 70 men in my cohort. I started to learn all about the legal side of running lorries, took exams in road haulage and became a qualified Transport Manager. When I was 23 I was managing 50 HGV drivers on the Marks & Spencer distribution contract. I also lived and worked in France at the M&S warehouse near Paris. My French is fluent to this day – thanks to a love of the language first sparked by Miss Hargreaves in 1978. Next, I worked for Peugeot/Citroen in their supply chain for 7 years speaking French daily, then Pearson Education moving academic text books around the world. Then I went self employed and helped haulage companies work safely and legally. I built a compliance app for fleet operators along with my business partner and we sold it and went to work for the technology company that bought us – that was interesting! I am now self-employed again training warehouse managers and doing transport audits in haulage yards. It is both well paid and fascinating.

How have I done so well? Going back to the Queen’s School diamonds, I am able use my intelligence – most recently stunning my lorry drivers by sorting out post Brexit customs issues in rapid French at 6.30am. I am able to unravel complex problems and use my emotional intelligence as well to know when to negotiate hard, and when to use charm. I work hard – of course I do! I work smart though – I have never hard to work really long hours as I know the difference between getting stuff done and just being present at work. During my career I also squeezed in having two boys, both now grown up, and kept working throughout. They are really proud of their mum. It has been tough but always great fun and rewarding.

One of the biggest achievements has been setting up the networking group Women in Logistics UK. This is a voluntary role. I set up the group in 2008 when my youngest son was four. I knew that female networks can be incredibly powerful – I had learned this at school. Using social media, I built up a core of women who were passionate about improving things for other women in the profession. We had our first meeting and got the committee together, and since then we have built up an amazing organisation which has resulted in so many female achievements in warehousing and transport. We have six thousand followers on LinkedIn and are an acknowledged force for good in the sector. We teach women how to network, how to leverage their connections and how to truly believe in themselves in order to progress. We give them the gift of confidence. We organise conferences, and warehouse tours – but we are most famous for our Netwalking – walking and networking on a Saturday with female colleagues at different UK locations, having a laugh and getting to know one another. If the men want to play 5 aside, we can netwalk.  So many women have got incredible new jobs, won awards, secured business contracts, found mentors and made true friends through Women in Logistics. Men love it too, about 20% of our members are men and we need them to be male allies in this industry which is still incredibly sexist and old fashioned. We are truly making a difference.

So my career has been unusual but incredible and I have passed my enthusiasm and energy on to the next generation of women. If you would like to know more about a career working in logistics you can find me on LinkedIn. I am convinced that my diamond foundations from the Queen’s School shaped me, the person who not only had the idea for Women in Logistics but crucially the passion to make it all happen.

Thank you.