A Lesson in Etiquette

Every year the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists hold a dinner for Freemen and Liverymen who have been admitted in the previous twelve months. They are a large Company with 700+ members so every twelve months there are a lot of new Freemen and Liverymen--it was a big dinner.
As a guest I was intrigued to learn that the essence of these evenings is essentially, and in a humorous and light-hearted way, to provide instruction in all the etiquette involved in Livery dinners. This includes everything from how to sing Grace, how to perform the Loving Cup Ceremony, the Rosebowl Ceremony, how correctly to handle toasts, not to leave the table during dinner, and much more besides. All new Freemen and Liverymen have to listen or watch demonstrations and then perform themselves. They are scored out of 10 by the Clerk holding up a 1-10 score card. Less than a score of 6 requires that the exercise is repeated. It is very amusing and very instructive for those who need to know.
Sitting next to their Master he referred many times to the excellent work the Marketors had done in the branding and marketing of the new, digitally focused, Hammersmith Academy which they and the Mercers have co-financed. I don't know whether I felt vicarious pleasure or reflected corporate glory. The glory of course goes to Court Assistant Peter Rees who made such a major contribution to the successful launch of the Academy, including staff and student recruitment
The guest speaker was Alderman Fiona Woolf who, having stepped down from being Aldermanic Sheriff in 2011, is biding her time now before she becomes Lord Mayor in a few years time. She was as always, and as befits a senior lawyer, both incisive and witty. Altogether a very enjoyable evening

Laundering

Earlier in the week I was a guest at the Launderers' Court Dinner at Launderers' Hall (sometimes also known as Glaziers' Hall) I have made good friends with Colin Hill, their Master, and have been unable to go to other events to which he would have liked to invite me. He was determined to get me to a Launderers' event and so invited me to their Court Dinner. As we sat down it dawned on me that I was the only guest.
It was a delightful meal marred only slightly when, as we came towards the end of the first course, Colin nonchalantly said would I like to say a few words. I was completely unprepared for this but ever mindful of the name and fame of the Marketors I said yes, of course. The dessert course was consumed whilst I rapidly thought what I might say. Clearly thank you was very much in order to start with. Then I was able to recall that in my early career when working for Lever Brothers I had for a time worked in Lever Industrial-the arm of Lever Brothers which sold soap and detergent to Laundries and other non consumer customers. I could reminisce.
My eye then fell upon the Menu which had the Company's crest on it. It is reproduced here. You can see the two women who flank each side of the crest. Laundering is ancient and was historically, and is perhaps today, female orientated. Ignoring the Company's Chaplain and the representative of their affiliated Regiment, who had just been made an Honorary Liveryman at the preceding Court meeting, there were well over twenty Court members sitting round the table. There was only one woman. I am not one to pass up such an opportunity for gentle ribbing. Happily it went down well. Were my term of office as Master longer I might have been invited back

Court Dinner

It is traditional at the end of a Master's year for there to be a Court Dinner with Partners. In effect it's a farewell dinner. Thanks to the good offices of the Clerk we were able to hold this in Girdlers Hall. This hall is not generally available and is only let out three or four times a year. The Girdlers are financially strong enough not to have to worry overmuch about generating hall revenue!
The hall itself is on a site that the Company has owned for centuries but like so many halls it was destroyed in the great fire of 1666 and again during the bombing raids of the second world war. It was rebuilt in 1961 and significantly extended and refurbished in 2006. It is now very grand indeed and a wonderful venue for the Court Dinner
This traditionally a closed event with no guests. An exception was made this year as we invited Commander Tom Sharpe of HMS St Albans. The ship has just returned from 6 months in the Persian Gulf and after a refit will out at sea again so it seemed a perfect opportunity for us to meet Commander Sharpe and for him to meet us in an informal and relaxed setting.
It also allowed me the opportunity to present him with the silver Marketors' Cup to be awarded annually to the member of the ship's company who does the most to raise the profile of HMS St Albans/the Royal Navy externally by, for instance, work in local communities, volunteering in youth groups, raising money for charity and the like. I was also able to present him with a cheque from the Marketors' Trust as a donation to the ship's Benevolent Fund.
For me, as I reached almost the end of my year, this Court Dinner was a very special evening which Marianne and I deeply appreciated

Carols at St Brides

On Monday last an unprecedentedly large number of Marketors attended the 46th annual carol service for the communications industry-and what better place than than Wren's St Brides the spiritual home of printing and the media for over 300 years and the home church now to a host of communications organisations who were all represented. The church when empty it is a place of great tranquility but for a carol service, with the St Brides choir, it is joyfully full of music.
The church is rightly famous for its choir, ( all professional singers) which was established in 1957 for the church's re dedication and which has remained more or less the same ever since. For a carol service they are in their element.
The service included many of the old favourite Christmas carols and seasonal readings. The Christmas message was delivered by Boris's sister, Rachel Johnson, erstwhile editor of the Lady magazine.
Afterwards 42 of us walked up Fetter Lane to the Grappalo Restaurant where we refreshed our throats and had a thoroughly enjoyable and convivial meal

St Albans Coming Home

The Company were invited to send two members to join with our affiliated ship, HMS St Albans, at Lisbon for the final leg of its journey home from operations in the Persian Gulf. Hugh West and Jeremy Stern snapped up the chance to spend 6 days on board. You see them here on the left and to all intents and purposes this photograph makes it appear that they are on a windy deck of a luxury holiday cruise liner. In the interests of balanced reporting I show a photograph lower down of Hugh which makes it clear that they were on HMS St Albans.
I quote now short extracts from an interesting paper Hugh wrote about their experiences on board.
''Each department took us through a very detailed explanation of their role and many exercises were carried out to keep the crew on top form. This included fire drills, sea boat launches and firing salvoes from the main 4.5” gun managed by our excellent and patient host, the Principal Weapons Officer, Lt Cdr James Robey RN, as well as allowing us to fire their Gatling type mini gun and the general purpose machine guns personally. I declined the strong invitation to take part in the man overboard exercise which showed how efficient the crew handled emergencies.''

''The ship was over manned with additional crew and a Royal Marines detachment making accommodation rather tight. We were billeted with the Chief Petty Officers (they are very large!) and slept in a tier of three narrow steel bunks within a few inches of the raging Atlantic swell though the single-skinned hull. Showers and heads (toilets) were the deck above which proved a difficult passage when only dressed in a towel at 0600 hours!''

''After a final night we anchored in Spithead and the Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Charles Montgomery CBE RN, visited the ship and made a speech to the whole crew, with us at attention, and then we weigh anchor and gently glide into sunny Portsmouth harbour to be greeted with columns of water from the fireboats and the emotional sight of hundreds of excited family members on the quay waiting to welcome home their loved-ones after their six month deployment accompanied by a Royal Marine Band.

''The experience was wonderful but it is the officers and crew that makes St Albans such an outstanding ship and I hope the Marketors’ affiliation with HMS St Albans will be of long-lasting mutual benefit and being in Home Waters, until her refit in 2013, there will be plenty of opportunities for us to reciprocate their hospitality.''

'London 1,000 Years'

'London 1,000 years: treasures from the collection of the City of London' is the title of a newly published book written and compiled by David Pearson, Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries for the City of London Corporation. In celebration of the 600th anniversary of Guildhall the launch, attended by the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, took place in the Great Hall last night.
The launch was an ancillary event to the main event which was a presentation by Dr Simon Thurley on the history of Guildhall. From it's origins in 1411, built on an even older Roman site, Dr Thurley used very fine slides to compare London's Guildhall with other Guildhalls in European Cities and even old Guildhalls elsewhere in England (Norwich being the biggest one outside London) He is a masterly speaker and held captive a very large audience as he talked through the history of the Guildhall up to the present day.
He was followed by David Pearson who touched on a minute percentage of the City's enormous historical collection--70 kilometres of archive shelving just to hold what is not on display. The Corporation looks after collections on national importance going back to the Norman conquest. It even includes an original copy of Magna Carta, an original First Folio of Shakespeare and more records, paintings, books, manuscripts, gold and silver than one can easily get one's brain round. The book is a delight and a pictorial treasure trove. I would unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone.

Annual City Lecture

Last week we held our Annual City Lecture in the beautiful environment of Goldsmiths' Hall. Despite it being a Friday night it was a well attended event with the Masters of 26 other Livery Companies present as guests of the Company, with their Clerks.
Pre lecture drinks led on to a stunning presentation, using digital slides and video, from the guest speaker Jeannette Liendo. As Sir Paul Judge said in introducing her, she is Brazilian, was educated in Switzerland and lives in Paris. She is the Global Marketing Director, Corporate, for Microsoft. As I explained when I opened the evening it is impossible to have a year themed, as mine is, on the subject of Innovation without having a major speaker to talk on the subject which is the most innovative in our life time -the digital revolution. And who better than Jeannette.
An accomplishes presenter she explained how Microsoft approach innovation both in process and culturally. She then showed a video on the future of digital--the innovations that exist today but are not yet, as she put it, 'distributed' i.e in general circulation. What looked like science fiction actually now exists and will in time be rolled out for public consumption. Whether everyone in the audience fully grasped all that she said I don't know but it certainly left a terrific impression.
After a virtuoso performance we retired from the main hall to the outer rooms for a delightful supper.