It takes flexibility to work in the Foreign Service, says Bermuda's new Deputy Governor.

"You must be someone who is prepared to make fairly significant changes on a more or less regular basis,'' said Mr. Peter Willis, who recently arrived at Government House to succeed Mr. John Kelly.

"When I go back to London I see commuters who have been going up and down on British Rail trains for 40 years. That's what I couldn't do.'' At the other extreme, there were people who were "continuously travelling and living out of suitcases, spending no more than two or three days wherever they are.'' That life was not for Mr. Willis, either.

"I like to see and experience over a meaningful period new and different countries,'' said the 50-year-old native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. "That's a far more rewarding and satisfactory way of doing it.'' Mr. Willis is discovering Bermuda after spending most of his Foreign Service career in the Mideast.

"I think I can honestly say that I've never been anywhere as beautiful and as well-ordered,'' he said. And, "I don't think I've been anywhere where the trees are full of frogs that sound like creaking doors.'' With the exception of one three-year posting in London, Mr. Willis spent 1965 to 1985 in the Arab world.

His Foreign Service career got off to "a bit of a rocky start.'' During the first of his two stints in Jordan he had "a front seat'' for the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and remembers "planes screaming over the embassy''.

He arrived in Libya on August 15, 1969, and Colonel Muammar Gadaffi mounted his revolution on September 1. "I was arrested on the way into the embassy on the first morning,'' he recalled. "The big lesson I drew from that is that you should always listen to what your wife tells you.'' The couple had woken up to a huge racket at five in the morning. Mr. Willis said he thought guns were being fired as part of a wedding celebration. But his wife Margaret told him: "I think you should go into the office. There's a revolution going on.'' The embassy was just around the corner from the broadcasting station which was the centre of the coup, and Mr. Willis was arrested on his way in. "That was fairly tense for a bit,'' he said. Although his wife's advice led to a short detainment, "going into the office was still a good idea''.

Mr. Willis later "pulled the flag down'' on the embassy in Benghazi. The capital is now Tripoli.

Other postings in his 31-year career included the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York dealing with economic issues from 1985 to 1989, and Commercial Consul in Casablanca, Morocco, from 1980 to 1985.

Most recently, he spent four years in London with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office News Department, where he dealt with Middle East issues. In that job, Mr. Willis worked "truly horrendous hours'' providing information for journalists during the Gulf War. He also flew to Damascus three times aboard the Royal Air Force planes that returned Mr. Terry Waite and two other British hostages who were held in Iran.

"What still strikes me is just how resilient the three of them were, and how impressed I was by their fortitude and mental stamina,'' he said."I very often try to imagine how long I would have lasted in similar circumstances.'' "You would like to think that you would be as strong and resilient as they were, but you have your doubts.'' In all, "it's certainly not a job where you're going to suffer from a very narrow focus,'' Mr. Willis said. As Deputy Governor, "the fact that the work is totally new means that there is a whole new series of challenges and opportunities.'' The Willis children have been raised and schooled around the world, and this summer he and his wife are to be joined by their 23-year-old twin daughters.

"They've certainly been open to wider experiences than many of their peers have,'' Mr. Willis said of his children. "There have been beneficial effects.'' During his time in Morocco, "seeing their father going to visit someone who has been in prison for five years for drug possession I think has been a salutary and unspoken lesson''.

NEWLY ARRIVED -- Bermuda's new Deputy Governor Mr. Peter Willis, pictured here with his wife Margaret, has spent most of his Foreign Service career in the Middle East.