Among the first GIS officers to prove the adaptability of the grade, by leaving the parent department on secondment to other arms of the civil service, were Jimmy Evans and Joseph Cheng, assigned respectively to information liaison posts in the Hong Kong Government Office in London and in Police Headquarters.

Irene Yau, by then a Senior Information Officer in the Inquiry Service, became another early 'lone scout' on detachment when she was posted to the Social Welfare Department. "Those were hectic days," she recalls. "I was the only one there, and there were lots of fires in squatter areas, which meant I was called out practically every other night, helping to deal with hundreds of people made homeless. I learnt early on to sleep by the telephone."

At the beginning of 1979, she was transferred to the Police as Chief Police Information Officer. "I can't recall whether it was the first or the second day I joined the Police, but we had two things running at the same time. One was an unprecedented protest in the yard of Arsenal Street Police Headquarters, when hundreds of Police officers were demonstrating against the ICAC. That was before Governor MacLehose declared the amnesty.

"At the same time there was a big hijacking incident at the airport. It was a bit stressful, but great fun.

"I was very, very lucky that the Police trusted me, and counted on my advice. We worked very well together. We just hit on the right note I guess. And the experience I gained there, in handling crisis events, was extremely helpful to me when I later returned to GIS. I learned from them how useful it was to have clear operational orders, and how important it was to have the discipline to carry them out.

"There are lots of activities in GIS which are quite similar in their logistical requirements, particularly in organising big events. You have to be very methodical, and disciplined, in planning the detail and preparing for any eventuality.

"The contacts I made in the Police remained valuable to me throughout the rest of my career, especially when we required Police co-operation in mapping out the route for a VIP tour or any other occasion where senior government officials or visiting dignitaries might attract the attention of the media. I believe it was useful to the Police too. They had somebody whom they trusted, talking to them about the media whom they disliked.

"I have also been very lucky in receiving tremendous support from colleagues I worked with. I had the good fortune to be blessed with good teamwork and to benefit from a tremendous team spirit. Those I worked with remained loyal to me, and have proved their abilities in many other testing roles since - people like Akber Khan, Julianna Chen and S Y Tam.

"In all my years in GIS the most significant development was the rapid expansion of the department. When I first joined, the department was still a small, family-scale operation. It has since expanded I don't know how many times.

"It becomes a very different operation to control when your people are not working together under one roof but spread all over the different departments of government - even all over the world, as is now the case. It requires tremendously complex decision making when you have to decide who to send where, because you are in fact looking for jacks of all trades who are masters of everything."