Dr Fiona Hill returns to her Bishop Auckland school

Dr Fiona Hill, who worked in the White House advising Barack Obama and Donald Trump, also made up for her embarrassment the last time she was on the stage at Bishop Barrington Academy in Bishop Auckland in the early 1980s.

Read more: The Bishop Auckland daughter who testified against Donald Trump

“It is such a thrill as I have only been back once since I left in 1984,” she said after delivering the school assembly. “I have some bad memories of public speaking from that stage as I fell off, but it’s a whole new building now and it is great to see the students so engaged. To think that once upon a time that was me!”

The daughter of a coalminer and a nurse, Dr Hill told the students of the depressing days of her childhood in the coalfield when the mines were closing and the world seemed on the brink of nuclear war. Education, she said, was her way out.

One of her uncles jokingly advised that if she were going to university, she should study Russian “to find out why they’re bloody well trying to blow us up”. Her studies in Russian and History at St Andrews in Scotland led to Moscow and then Harvard University in the US, where she wrote a book about Russia’s new president, the mysterious Vladimir Putin. That led to her White House advisory role which, in turn, led to her giving evidence against President Trump in his first impeachment trial.

Former White House national security aide Fiona Hill, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on November 21, 2019

“When I left Bishop Barrington, I set out to study history,” she said. “I never thought I would be making history.

“I found myself in front of the TV cameras watched by millions. All I did was tell the truth. Sometimes you can become famous for doing the right thing. Even Donald Trump was telling lies so telling truth was something of an act of rebellion.

“So that’s where my story ended, and it began here. I remember the back gate on the black path into school. I had no idea where I would end up when I started on that path. What’s your story and where are you going to end up?”

Fiona Hill with Vladimir Putin and John Bolton on June 27, 2018. Picture: The Russian President

In a question and answer session, she gave students a brutally realistic assessment of the war in Ukraine. “I don’t see an end to it at this point. All we can do is push back against it. Putin thinks we will put pressure on our governments to pull back and sacrifice Ukraine, because of high prices, the deaths, the threat of nuclear weapons.

“Then it’ll be the next place, he will put pressure on Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

“Study history - it gives you a great perspective and helps you understand, because you are going to be dealing with the consequences of what’s happening now for 10 years ahead.”

Students questioning Dr Fiona Hill

Dr Hill has recently published her biography, There’s Nothing For You Here, where the title comes from a phrase her father used, but she was far more positive about prospects for south Durham youngsters 30 years on. She advised students: “Try hard, work hard, and ask people for help – there’s always a door someone will point you towards.

“You don’t have to go university, there are so many opportunities emerging here - if things like Kynren had existed, I would have volunteered.”

One student asked what advice she would give her 13-year-old self, and she replied: “Don’t panic. You got the feeling that if you didn’t succeed right away, it is not going to happen, but for a lot of things, there’s always another chance.”

For Dr Hill herself at Bishop Barrington, the second chance came 30 years later. On her way to give a reading at a Christmas assembly, she tumbled off the stairs on the way up, and then, instead of saying that John the Baptist had a “leathern girdle about his loins”, she said he had a “lirdle about his groins”.

“I laughed so much that the headmaster kicked me off the stage,” she said.

Today’s head, Grant Sowerby, said: “I hope the students are inspired and it will broaden their aspirations. She was so open and honest and, being local, she fits our ethos of opening doors to the future – students know they can go on and be what they want to be.”

And student Alfie Howard, 13, said: “It was very inspirational. Thinking that someone that famous came from Bishop Barrington and she worked at high up universities and with the presidents, it is just mind boggling.”