LORD Armstrong, the chairman of Bristol & West, who is joining Bank of Ireland court (board), attracted controversy on a number of occasions as cabinet secretary to Mrs Thatcher between 1979 and 1987.

Then Sir Robert Armstrong, he featured prominently in the socalled Spycatcher trial in Australia in 1986, when Mrs Thatcher's government was attempting to block the publication of former intelligence operative Peter Wright's book, which alleged that the former head of MI5, Sir Roger Hollis, had been a Russian mole.

Sent by the British government to testify on its behalf to the New South Wales State Supreme Court, he faced tough questioning by a defence lawyer and was forced to concede he had misled an Australian publisher in connection with the book. Sir Robert famously admitted he had been "economical with the truth." Earlier that year he was also in the news while investigating the leak of a letter at the centre of the Westland helicopter affair.

He joined the board of Bristol & West in 1992 and became chairman the following year. He is a director of the merchant bank N.M. Rothschild and chairman of the board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum.