Dorset’s first American-born High Sheriff, Sibyl Fine King, reflects on her year in office and the projects her charitable trust has supported in her adopted home county
If you’ve ever spent any time on the wilder parts of our coastline, you probably owe the outgoing High Sheriff of Dorset, Sibyl Fine King DL, a debt of gratitude. This plucky Pennsylvanian has, through her Fine Family Foundation, supported visitor centres along Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, backed the art gallery at Durlston Castle and ploughed money into the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. Quite an investment for someone who landed in Dorset almost by accident nearly 40 years ago.
I met Sibyl at her home above Evening Hill at the end of what is apparently known as her ‘shrieval’ year. Zendi, a caramel coloured cockapoo, enthusiastically greets me, before she is shushed and sent to lie on her bed near the window. Then Sibyl and I settled down to discuss her eventful life which has taken her from Pittsburgh, a bustling industrial city in Pennsylvania USA to Poole, a seaside town in Dorset.
As a young woman, Sibyl studied for a master's degree in Washington DC. Her health and fitness management course offered some overseas work experience. When presented with a choice between Italy and England, she chose the latter. And though she didn’t exactly land in Thomas Hardy’s bucolic Wessex landscape (it was an NHS portacabin in St Leonards near the Dorset/Hampshire border), nevertheless, the 25-year-old made a good fist of it.
‘I was a health promotion facilitator. We were doing a pilot project with four doctors’ surgeries to see if we could promote healthy living to their patients and save the NHS money.’ This, she explains, was back in 1985 when healthy living was a whole new concept. ‘I didn’t really know what I was doing, nobody did. But I designed this Well Person Check, and they loved it. So, it was rolled out to all the doctors’ surgeries across Dorset.’
However, Sibyl's passions lay elsewhere. She had just had her second child, Ryan (she also has another son Daniel, and a daughter Alice), when she left the health service – the role, she says, had become too bureaucratic. Initially she volunteered for a time with Citizens’ Advice, before, with backing from her family back in Pittsburgh, starting up her own charitable trust - the Fine Family Foundation – which creates and supports local projects right here in Dorset. ‘I started working with Dorset Wildlife Trust, who were very welcoming. The first thing we did together was at Kimmeridge.’ She’s referring to the Fine Foundation Wild Seas Centre, which opened to the public in 2001 for the Trust’s 40th anniversary. Sibyl is somewhat modest as her foundation were the main sponsors. But her involvement also brought, and brings to other projects, what she calls ‘a quiet influence’. ‘It’s not huge amounts of money, but I can make a difference. I can see something or talk to someone and make things actually happen. I feel lucky that I’m here at the right time.’
Sibyl’s relationship with Dorset Wildlife Trust has been a long and fruitful one. To date the foundation has supported 10 visitors' centres along the Jurassic Coast including ones at Chesil Beach and Charmouth. ‘I like projects that are just a little bit different,’ she smiles. ‘Where you match things that wouldn't have been matched, and some spark happens which is out of the ordinary.’
Currently she is working with the Trust on a particularly cool-sounding project on Brownsea Island. ‘We found an architect who had designed a treehouse in Dorset that won a RIBA award,’ she explains. She’s referring to the Woodsman’s Treehouse in Holditch, part of Mallinson’s Woodland Retreat which won both the RIBA South West Small Project of the Year 2017. Designed by Bridport-based BEAM Architects, this is a gorgeous, elevated woodland retreat you can stay in, if you don’t mind paying at least £500 a night. ‘The same architect has designed us a visitor centre on Brownsea which is going to be fantastic. Doesn’t that sound like a good fit for Brownsea? A treehouse with unrivalled views of the famous lagoon?!’
As the interview progresses, it’s abundantly clear that Sibyl has fallen hard for Dorset. ‘I love walking along its coastline,’ she enthuses. ‘I never really went for a walk in America, not unless I was on holiday or something, but now walking is what I do most of the time.’
One of her most significant contributions recently has been the creation of Park Yoga. It started six years ago as free Sunday morning yoga sessions open to all in the heart of Bournemouth. ‘We got the council to agree to give us the Lower Gardens on a Sunday morning,’ she explains. ‘Then we found a teacher, made some little leaflets… and it just exploded. We now have 30 Park Yoga sites across the UK!’
It was initiatives like this that saw Sibyl nominated for the role of High Sheriff of Dorset four years ago. She still doesn’t know who put her forward, and she may very well be the first American to ever hold the post, certainly here in Dorset. ‘For four years I was honestly thinking “Oh my gosh! How am I going to do this? This is so scary! Am I good enough?” And then, right before I had my declaration, I realised, I can do this!’
If you don’t know what a High Sheriff is, then you’re not alone. I didn’t either, until Sibyl explained the role to me. ‘It’s a one-year appointment. For that year, I’m the monarch’s representative in Dorset for the legal system. So, the judiciary, the courts, and the police, prisons and probation… and I’ve had a theme throughout my year: The Healing Power of Nature.’
That means that for the last 12 months, up until the end of March 2023, Sibyl has had a royal endorsement, first from Queen Elizabeth II, and then King Charles III, to bend anyone’s ear about the positive impact that the outside world can have, especially nature.
One of the projects she undertook, working with Dorset Wildlife Trust, was getting a pond built in HMP Prison Guys Marsh, near Shaftesbury, as a way of connecting the inmates with nature. But the ideas didn’t stop there. 'I love my dog,’ she looks fondly at the now snoozing Zendi. ‘And I had this idea about getting prisoners training dogs. I think that could be a really powerful thing, but I haven’t been able to do it yet.’
Sadly, Sibyl’s time as High Sheriff of Dorset is rapidly coming to an end, waiting in the wings to step into this role for 2022/23 is Colin William George Weston MBE. ‘There’s no such thing as an ex High Sheriff,’ she laughs. ‘That’s it. You’re finished. You’ve done your bit, off you go. During your term of office, you’re treated incredibly well. You get a million invitations, but it’s only for a year. So don’t get a big head because soon you’ll be yesterday’s news!’ Even without the shrieval chains of office draped around her neck, I get the impression that Sibyl Fine King will still find ways to make positive life-changing things happen for people from all walks of life right across the county that she loves so passionately.
