105. The Worshipful Company of Constructors Livery and Awards Dinner

Earlier this week, I was a guest of the Worshipful Company of Constructors at their Livery and Awards Dinner held in the beautiful Goldsmith’s Hall in the City. With 200 people present it was a very impressive occasion.

As well as the formal dinner and the loving cup ceremony, the Company made awards to outstanding students from London Universities and for bravery to serving army, navy and air force personnel based in and around London.

The principal guest and proposer of the toast to the Company was Professor David Mosey who spoke on the importance of teamwork in the construction industry.

Many thanks to Ian Mason, Master Constructor, for an excellent evening.

Photographs show the splendid Goldsmith’s Livery Hall and the menu card and invitation.

104. Master’s Valentines Dinner

It is a Company tradition for the Master to organize a lunch or dinner to say thank you to the Wardens, Bailiff, Clerk, Beadle, Past Masters, Members of the Court and their partners for all their support during his or her year. The Master also “sponsors” the partners at this event.

This year we organized (with great assistance from our Clerk, Ralph Riley) a Valentines Dinner on Board HQS Wellington. Although only seven months into our year, Fiona and I thought it was a good idea to use Valentines Day and link it to the installation of seven Consorts as Freemen of the Company (see blog no 103). It was a fun, colourful and very sociable event. The Cook and the Butler decorated the Livery Hall beautifully with large red heart-shaped balloons, candelabra’s, colourful tablecloths and roses. The excellent dinner had a Valentines Day theme and speeches were thankfully short!

A great evening and thanks to everyone who helped organize it.

Photographs show Fiona and I before the event started, the beautifully decorated Livery Hall, table place settings, Father of the Company Roy Harris with his wife Sonya, Past Master Roger Hewitt and his wife Rosemary, and Past Master Barry Dennis and his wife Jan.

103. Consort’s Installation Ceremony

On 14th February (Valentine’s Day) immediately before the Master’s Dinner (see blog no 104) on board HQS Wellington, Company history was made!

A specially convened Court Meeting enabled me to install seven Consorts as Freemen of the Company. They were Sonya Harris, Georgina Drummond, Rosemary Hewitt, Jan Dennis, Lis Matthews, Georgina Hall and Fiona Tozzi.
The Consorts have made an enormous contribution to our Company having given tremendous support to their Master’s during their year of office and it was a great privilege to honour them in this way.

Photographs show HQS Wellington (built in 1934 as a Grimsby class warship and now the Livery Hall of the Honorable Company of Master Mariners) and the seven new Freemen proudly holding their certificates and badges.

102. Speaker at Election Court Lunch

Our Election Court Lunch will be held on Thursday 20th April at the Armourers’ Hall (81 Coleman Street, London). Our Clerk, Ralph Riley, will shortly be issuing a flyer for the event but I wanted to give you advance notice of my principal guest and speaker.

I am delighted to tell you that it will be Peter Estlin, who is Alderman for the Ward of Coleman Street and who was elected Sheriff of London for 2017/18. If elected he will become Lord Mayor in the year 2018/19. Peter has a wealth of experience in working in the City and is still a Senior Advisor to Barclays Bank.

Peter will be a great speaker and I hope as many of you as possible will attend the Election Court Lunch to hear him.

Photograph shows Peter in some of his Sheriff’s regalia.

101. WET 10 Debate – 21st March 2017

The WET 10 forum consists of an informal group of livery companies who have a link with water – the group includes the Water Conservators, Plumbers, Launderers and Environmental Cleaners (in fact now 13 companies in total!)

The Water Conservators have always taken a leading role in this forum and this year have organized a debate entitled “THIS HOUSE believes that the water utility of 2030 will have to be unrecognizable from the water utility of today to survive”. The debate, with key players from the water industry acting and proposers and opposers, will take place on 21st March 2017 in the Guildhall Members Club (3rd floor of the Guildhall building in Aldermanbury) commencing with tea and coffee served at 5.30pm.

The event is free but you will need to register with Ralph Riley, our Clerk, if you would like to attend – there are limited places left.

Some of the post-graduate students supported by our charity, The Water Conservation Trust, will be participating in a poster exhibition at this event.

Our Walbrook Warden, Mark Lane (ably supported by Fleet Warden Simon Catford and our Clerk, Ralph Riley), has put much effort into organizing this debate, which has generated much interest. I hope you will be able to join us for a good evening.

Photographs show Martin Shouler of Arup who will be supporting the proposition and Peter Simpson of Anglian Water who will be opposing it.

100. Weekend in Vienna

A weekend in Vienna in February to celebrate Fiona's birthday could have been at risk of delayed flights and heavy snowfall, but we were lucky. Cold (-2C to +2C), no snow and glimpses of sunshine in a blue sky all made for a memorable occasion.

Together with some planned sightseeing we also had tickets for a spectacular performance of Verdi's "Otello" at the State Opera House.

A beautiful City, which must look even better in the summer when the trees are in leaf.

Photographs show us by the canal which flows into the nearby Danube, the colourful 15th century roof of St Stephen's Cathedral (showing the House of Habsburg coat of arms) and the elegant entrance at the Opera House.

99. Meeting with the Society for the Environment

The Society for the Environment has 24 professional bodies (eg CIWEM, ICE, CIWM) as its members who collectively have over 500,000 individual members. The Society has the ability to license individuals to become Chartered Environmentalists and over 7,500 professionals have taken advantage of this opportunity.

The Water Conservators and the Society have been looking to see if a shared understanding can be achieved between the two organizations which could lead to recruitment opportunities for both parties.

Earlier this week our Clerk (Ralph Riley) and I met with Peter Matthews (Chairman of the Society and Past Master Water Conservator) and Dr Emma Wilcox (CEO of the Society) to explore opportunities. We anticipate reporting back to our own FM & GP Committee and our Court later in the year on those opportunities.

Photograph shows the Institute of Directors building in Pall Mall where we met.