Embarrassing Admiral lands at Atkins

THE FORMER chief of defence staff who embarrassed the Government by demanding to know whether British involvement in the Iraq war was legal, has taken his first step into lucrative semi-retirement in the City with a part-time directorship at WS Atkins.

Admiral the Lord Boyce, 61, goes to the Square Mile just a year after retiring as defence chief. He is expected to earn about £35,000 for the one-day-a-month job.

Atkins is Britain's biggest consulting engineer. Its defence interests include the design of bomb-proof establishments as well as managing military homes for the Ministry of Defence.

'Lord Boyce brings highly-relevant public sector and defence related experience to the company as well as considerable international knowledge,' said Atkins chairman Michael Jeffries. Boyce was at the centre of a Whitehall storm when he admitted he had specifically demanded 'unequivocal' assurances that an Iraq invasion was legal under international law as he and his senior officers feared the potential to be later sued as war criminals.

Atkins, whose recovery on the stock market has made it one of the best performing shares of the last 12 months, has also appointed industrialist and academic Sir Peter Williams as a non-executive.