72. Long Weekend Break

Fiona and I have escaped to our property in the southwest of Spain for a long weekend break.

The weather has been beautiful and we were greeted with this beautiful sunset sky on arrival. Lucky us!

71. The Worshipful Company of Actuaries – Lecture & Supper

The Worshipful Company of Actuaries lecture and supper was held earlier this week in their beautiful Staple Hall Inn in Holborn - see photograph.

The lecture, entitled “Risk & uncertainty in finance & business – an annotated history” was given by John Kay CBE who is a distinguished economist and writer as well as a visiting professor at The London School of Economics – see photograph.

John traced the history of insurance back to its origins in the Lloyds coffee shop in London following the Great Fire of London and challenged the models of insurance risk versus “taking a gamble” right through to the modern day.

A fascinating lecture, followed by a delicious supper and a lively Q and A session.

Many thanks to Sally Bridgeland, Master Actuary, for the invitation and the hospitality.

70. Sir Lionel Denny Lecture – Barber Surgeons Hall

Each year the Worshipful Company of Barbers deliver a lecture (The Sir Lionel Denny Lecture)  in memory of Sir Lionel who was Master of their Company in 1938 and Lord Mayor in 1965. This year the lecture, attended by Fiona and I, was entitled “Gogmagog and the Lord Mayor’s Show” and delivered by Dr Alixe Bovey who is Head of Research at the Courtauld Institute.

The lecture took us on a fascinating mythological journey tracing the origins of the famous giants Gog and Magog, who still feature strongly in and around the City of London. Large wooden carvings of these two giants feature on either side of the Guildhall and are an integral part of the Lord Mayors Show.

The Prime Warden Basketmaker was in the audience and introduced the two lady basketmakers who had made the giants for this years Lord Mayor’s Show.

Many thanks to the Master Barber for a fascinating evening.

Photographs show Dr Alixe Bovey and guests standing for the arrival of the Master Barber.

69. The New Lord Mayor’s Briefing

Earlier this week, the new Lord Mayor, Alderman Andrew Parmley, invited all livery company Masters and their Clerks to attend a briefing at the Mansion House. Ralph Riley and I attended on behalf of our Company.

At the briefing the Lord Mayor explained that he will be visiting a record 31 countries during his year with the specific intention of promoting the City of London. He also spoke of his love for music and his three appeal charities – they are The London Symphony Orchestra Discovery Programme, Music in Hospitals and St Paul’s Cathedral Foundation.

In response to a question at the end of the briefing, he amusingly explained how his diary works – he gets up in the morning, is dressed in his regalia, is fed, is put in a car to a destination and has a speech put in front of him. He claimed to be doing exactly what he is told, something his wife Wendy has failed to achieve after 40 years of marriage!

The Lord Mayor is very proud of his roots – his home town is Blackpool and he attended Blackpool Grammar School before going off to university. When we left we were all presented with a limited edition piece of Blackpool Rock!

Photographs show the new Lord Mayor in some of his regalia and a close up shot of the Blackpool Rock!

68. Meeting the Lady Mayoress

Fiona, along with several other Consorts from a wide variety of livery companies, attended the Guildhall for an informal meeting with the new Lady Mayoress, Wendy Parmley, earlier this week.

The event coincided with the printing and distribution of the latest Consorts Picture Book, which enabled everyone to recognize each other! (There is an equivalent Picture Book for Masters that has also just been updated.)

I am told that the lady Mayoress spoke about her interest in promoting businesses across the country and she gave details of the suppliers of her various outfits worn over the weekend of her husbands installation, the Lord Mayors Show and banquet in the Guiildhall.

She also explained her passion, shared with the Lord Mayor, for music and described their three appeal charities. They are The London Symphony Orchestra Discovery Programme, Music in Hospitals and St Paul’s Cathedral Foundation.

The Consorts wished the new Lady Mayoress every success in her year.

Photograph shows Fiona leaving The Mansion House on her way to meet the Lady Mayoress.

67. Lord Mayors Show – More photographs!

In Blog No 66, I promised to post more photographs of our involvement in the Lord Mayors Show as they became available. Here are a further six, which hopefully portray some of the atmosphere and fun of the day.

The first photograph shows our float early on in the show as we approached Mansion House and we can be seen waving to the new Lord Mayor in his grandstand.

The second shows us on Ludgate Hill enthusiastically waving to the crowds with our Union Jacks in hand.

The third photograph shows us further along Ludgate Hill but with a good shot of St Paul’s Cathedral in the background.

Number four shows us in Fleet Street approaching the half way point at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The fifth photograph unkindly shows me being “drowned” by the Magic Tap during our stop for a packed lunch.

The final photograph shows the new Lord Mayor, Alderman Andrew Parmley in his coach as he returned to the Mansion House.

What a great day!

66. Lord Mayors Show – The Big Day Arrives!

The new Lord Mayor, Alderman Andrew Parmley was duly installed at the traditional “Silent Ceremony” in the Guildhall on Friday 11^th November. As you know, Andrew is an Honorary Member of our Company and in support of him we entered a float in his Lord Mayors Show (see photograph of brochure).

The day of the Show, Saturday 12^th November, started very wet and overcast. Some 50 of us arrived at our float in Aldersgate, in the City, at 10.00am – some were sponsors who travelled on the front end of the float, the Wardens, Clerk and me (together with spouses) travelled at the back end of the float (in gowns and badges), whilst members and their families walked alongside the float attired in Water Conservator sweatshirts and baseball caps – all had matching blue and white umbrellas.

Despite the wet conditions (which quickly improved to a light drizzle), spirits were high and after boarding the float we set off in the direction of Mansion House (via London Wall and Princes Street) just before 11.00am. At 11.35am (exactly on-time) I was interviewed live by the BBC in Princes Street (see photograph) and that gave me a great opportunity to describe the work of our Company. We were given substantial air-time and much praise and support for our float (see photograph of our tap passing the Bank of England with our Clerk and Walbrook Warden also featured). If you missed the parade, BBC1 iplayer has recorded the whole event and we appear at about minute 50.

After waving at the new Lord Mayor in his grandstand outside the Mansion House we headed off towards St Pauls and the Royal Courts of Justice smiling and waving our union jacks all the way. Pavements were several bodies deep for most of the route and that gave me the opportunity to make some cheering children even wetter with aid of “super soaker” water pistols (see photograph)! Wherever we went our “magic tap” was seen with much awe and interest, accompanied by an awful lot of cheering. Fiona and I felt very proud to take part in the show, having been supported by so many people to produce the magnificent float (see photograph of us on board).

We stopped for a packed lunch at the halfway stage and set off again for the return trip at about 1.30pm. At Mansion House, Fiona and I had to leave the vehicle as all the Masters of the new Lord Mayors livery companies greeted him on his return with a guard of honour. A lunch in the Mansion House followed and then we set off to find a good vantage point (with red wine glass in hand) on the banks of the Thames to view the impressive firework display which started at 5.15pm.

A wonderful day in the history of our Company. Many, many thanks to all who helped organize it under the ever watchful eye of our Clerk, Ralph Riley.

I will post more photographs in coming days as they become available.