Master – Past – Immediate......

I am reminded of when I left my full-time job (for this hybrid, so-called portfolio career).  I sent an email to a colleague the following day, after my leaving party, with a message of thanks to put on the office intranet.  There was no response.  I telephoned to see if the email had been received and the response was “no, I haven’t ..... hold on a moment .... oh yes, it is in the spam filter”.  Hero to zero in 24 hours!

The Livery lets you down a little more lightly.  You put the chain of office on your successor, relinquish your seat at the top of the table and move to the side of the table where your first responsibility as “Immediate Past Master” (IPM) is to congratulate your successor – in my case something I did with great enthusiasm as the Master, for the first time in very many years, is a real needlemaker!  The IPM has a small role in the ensuing year:  to deputise for the Master if necessary and to act as unofficial almoner to the Company.  Then after a year you join the Past Masters – past but certainly not past it!

The Installation of the new Master was held on October 3 at the Skinners Hall.  The Skinners is an interesting company – you may have heard the phrase “at sixes and sevens”: this arises from a dispute between the Skinners and Merchant Taylors which came to a head in 1484 in lethal violence about who should take precedence in the Mayoral river procession.  The Mayor, Robert Billesdon, proposed that the companies take it in turns and when a fixed order for the Livery Companies was laid down in 1516 the two companies alternated between numbers six and seven – which they still do.

We held our Court meeting in the beautiful Court Room.  If you click the link you will see the magnificent Master’s Chair at the head of the table.  Like our Master’s gown - which was clearly made for someone great of height – so was this chair and my feet swung free a good few inches off the floor. 

I will write separately about the Annual Service that followed and the dinner. 

In the mean time – congratulations to our Master, George Borthwick CBE FRSE, CEng, DEng, DBA, BSc(Hons), FIMechE, FIET, CCMI, FRCSEd(Hon), FRCPS (Glas), FRCOphth(Hon), FRCOG(Hon).  We look forward with great excitement to his year of office.

Election of the Lord Mayor 2012

It is rather nice that my last official function before handing over to my successor is to participate in the election of the Lord Mayor. The Lord Mayor is elected by Common Hall, all Liverymen of the City’s Livery Companies. The sitting Lord Mayor summons Liverymen to the Guildhall for the election. The Masters of the Livery Companies, in their robes and chains process through the packed Hall and all the (civic) City dignitaries and officials then process in.

Common Hall is opened by the Common Cryer and Sergeant at Arms (who does shout Oyez, Oyez – and sitting close to the front the volume of his voice is quite terrifying!).

After a bit of ceremony the Lord Mayor and the senior Alderman (who have already been Lord Mayor) leave the Hall and go to the Print Room with the Recorder. Town Clerk. the City Marshall  and the Sword Bearer  (an old photo but the only one I could find – the uniforms are wonderful).  The Marshal closes the door.

The Sheriffs and the Common Sergeant then present the list of those Aldermen “below the chair” ie have not yet been Lord Mayor, who have served as Sheriff. Three Aldermen are named as potential candidates and two are required to go forward. The voting is by a show of hands.  Traditionally the first candidate is accepted with a show of hands and also a shout from the Liverymen of “All”, the second with “Next” and the third with “Later”.  After a bit of faux conferring they then deliver the two names to the Lord Mayor.

The Assistant Town Clerk addresses the Livery.  Although the subject of his speech was fairly serious – about the facility at Heathrow, which the Corporation of London manages, for the supervision of animals being imported into the UK, it is delivered in a very light-hearted way and punctuated with jokes.

The Mayoral party return to the Hall – the Lord Mayor Elect assents to take up office and then he speaks to the Hall, followed by the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs.

I have not given the full detail – it is largely ceremonial but very enjoyable and an interesting thought that one is participating in a ritual that has gone on since the 12^th Century.

A group of Needlemakers then repaired to the Butchers’ Hall for an excellent lunch of – oh yes - Roast beef!

The Lord Mayor Elect - the 685th Lord Mayor will be Alderman Roger Gifford. He takes office on 9 November in the Silent Ceremony at the Guildhall.

460th Anniversary of the Foundation of Christ’s Hospital

As the school I attended in South Africa was only 25 years old at that stage I am somewhat in awe of schools that have survived for hundreds of years.

September 21 saw me back at St Paul’s for the second time that week for the celebration of the 460^th Anniversary of the Foundation of Christ’s Hospital School.  For my overseas readers – hospital in this context was closer to its earlier meaning  “charitable institution to house and maintain the needy” rather than place for the sick.

The school was the result of the vision of King Edward VI, assisted by Nicholas Ridley the Bishop of London and the Lord Mayor of the City of London. King Henry VIII had already granted the use of Greyfriars to the City for the relief of the poor. Edward granted the Palace of Bridewell, his lands at the Savoy and "rents and other chattels" to create three Royal ‘Hospitals’ — including Christ's Hospital, which was for the education of poor children. The first boys and girls entered the school in Newgate in 1552.

The school is very unusual for a British independent school as a proportion of the pupils are educated free and most at a reduced rate. Pupils are means tested and the fees adjusted accordingly so that children from all walks of life are able to have a high quality education.  It is therefore no surprise that the school is enthusiastically supported by City of London institutions, (including the Needlemakers).

The service was most impressive with a school choir and orchestra.  The pupils still wear the traditional dress with their long coats (it was originally known as the Bluecoat School) and I am assured that when regularly asked about the uniform they have no desire to change.  Do look at the website Christ's Hospital and an interesting cutting Local pupils vote to keep their uniform!

St Paul’s Cathedral – and the choir school

One of the great joys of this year has been listening to wonderful music: not only at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama but also at several churches, especially St Pauls.

On September 19 I attended Evensong at St Pauls which included the installation of a new Minor Canon and it was a feast of organ and choral music. This was followed by a short recital by the choristers and a talk on the choir school and some brief interviews with some of the choristers. 

All the Livery Companies that sponsor choristers then lined up with their choristers for a group photo and we had the opportunity to meet them and talk to them.  Some are so young  (seven!) and yet appeared so confident. 

The choristers then departed and we repaired to the Crypt for drinks and canapés. 

It is difficult to see very much but the overall view is stunning. I am standing in the middle my head barely showing above our chorister – look for the very tall man and I am on his left. 

The photo is copyright of St Paul’s Cathedral and the photographer is Mark Laing. 

Visit to the Royal School of Needlework

It is several years since the Needlemakers visited the Royal School of Needlework and a group visited on September 13. We are very proud that the Chief Executive, Dr Susan Kay-Hamilton, is a Liveryman.

The main focus of this visit was the exhibition that celebrates “140 years of the RSN” and it will be on until March 2013.  A brief history - 
in 1872 Lady Victoria Welby founded the School of Art Needlework in London with the first students being registered on 5 November 1872.  Within a month or two, Princess Helena, Queen Victoria’s third daughter became the President. By 1875 they had the Queen’s Patronage and became the Royal School of Art Needlework, exhibiting internationally for the first time in 1876 in the USA. The exhibition features 140 objects including archive materials, photographs and embroideries from the different decades.

One suspects that this is but the tip of the iceberg and there must be many more items in the archives of great interest.  The School is not locked in the past and while “ladies” may still embroider the students are looking to careers, which will use their skills, whether it will be in, for example, fashion or restoration and offers fully accredited degree programmes.

The School of course undertakes commissioned work whether it is restoration, a very special wedding dress last year, working from original designs or finishing a piece of work for someone. Not only churches and royalty are customers – anyone can commission a piece of work. (There is a lovely Paul Smith man’s suit on display with exquisitely embroidered motifs elegantly placed.)

My mother had an eighteenth century chair which had lost its covering and was just upholstered in canvas. She approached the RSN in the late 1970s and they did some research and produced a canvas for needlepoint, which replicated the type of design that would have been on the chair. They supplied all the yarn and she completed the chair, which I am very proud now to use. Have a look at some of the commissions they have undertaken.  See Studio work.

Horn: an everyday plastic!

The holiday is over and back to work – well, not really work.  The first function was the Court only dinner on Tuesday September 4, which we held at the Savile Club in the West end this year.  This was a change from what is normally a City venue and some of the men took the opportunity to wear their white tuxedos (not de rigeur in the City)! 

The various Needlemaker committees met on Wednesday where we reviewed the year to date and discussed plans for the year ahead.  In about a month I will hand over the reins to a new Master but no time to reflect on that just yet.

I ended the day at a fascinating exhibition by the Horners' Company.  The exhibition has been on throughout the summer.  Like many Livery Companies, the Horners has moved its focus from its original craft into a modern evocation. Horn is a natural plastic (keratin) which can be moulded into many articles from combs and buttons to beakers and pressed into translucent sheets for lantern leaves and even windows.

The Company’s charitable activities support science and the promotion of plastic design and technology.  The collection is held at the Museum of Design in Plastics within the Arts University College at Bournemouth.

The current Master, Georgina Scott, is also the first woman to be Master of the Company – here we are in front of one of the exhibition cases (thanks to photographer, Stephen Blunt, from London Metropolitan University for sending the photo).  

My personal favourites in the exhibition were a selection of fans made out of horn and some very elegant contemporary jewellery made by some of their prize-winners.