The Garden Party

Every year the Queen opens Buckingham Palace Gardens for 'the Queen's Garden Party'. Marianne and I were invited and went last week. So did a thousand other people--it's not a small affair but for central London the garden is vast. The picture below gives some idea of the event. The crowd form into lines and the royals come out of the Palace and walk down the aisle of visitors chatting to pre-selectd people ending up in a small Royal Pavilion set aside for them to have their own tea

The tea which is provided for everyone is actually very good-fine sandwiches and cakes. The most extra ordinary thing though is that very large numbers of people sit in chairs in long rows, several deep, in front of the Royal Pavilion just staring at the royal party eating their tea. I'm sure the royals are world weary enough not to be disconcerted but strange and poor manners nevertheless. The gardens are a great pleasure to walk around, they're quite immaculate and happily the sun shone all afternoon. Perfect summer party weather. Walking round we bumped into a number of other Masters whom we knew so it was quite sociable as well as being novel.

A Birthday Dinner

Sometimes by great good fortune one can find oneself in the right place at the right time. And so it was last week when, as Master, I with the Wardens, was invited to a very special dinner: HRH the Duke of Edinburgh's 90th Birthday Dinner. As was clear from the Charter ceremony last year and as is clear today, for a nonagenarian he is holding up rather well. Since he is an Honorary member of a number of Livery Companies as well as holding Honorary positions at the Bank of England and the Baltic Exchange he asked that instead of being asked to multiple dinner engagements could everyone not combine for a single Birthday dinner. And so it came to pass, with Fishmongers generously offering to organise and host the dinner. And what a dinner. With only ten Livery Companies and four other organisations represented it was a small and intimate affair.

Her Majesty the Queen accompanied the Duke as did the Princess Royal. We were all personally introduced to each royal before the dinner. The Menu was a joy and a wonderful souvenir but the food and drink were sensational. With such small numbers the tables were in a simple horseshoe shape. With these guests of honour the Fishmongers, if you will excuse the pun, pushed the boat out. A glorious meal was followed by two short speeches, one from the Prime Warden of the Fishmongers Company and one in response by the Duke. The Prime Warden paid tribute to Prince Philip's service to our country and to his tireless support to the Queen for decades. He told the dinner that the Queen had given him a special 90th Birthday present. She had conferred on him the Title and Office of Lord High Admiral which means he is now head of the Navy--a position formerly held by the monarch.

Prince Philip paid tribute to Livery but observed that he was scaling back his commitments. He told the BBC '' I reckon I've done my bit. I want to enjoy myself a bit now, with less responsibility, less frantic rushing around, less trying to think of something to say.'' What he said after dinner was similar and received a great applause. On a separate occasion the Prime Minister said he was ''a remarkable man who has given years of his service to our country, someone who has defended his nation in times of war, a man who has stood alongside Her Majesty the Queen for over six decades, a man who has given his time and effort and passion to so many great causes up and down the country, across the Commonwealth and indeed across the world'' These words reflected the mood of that evening. It was a singular privilege to be there and is one of the greatest highlights of my year so far.

St Dunstan's College CCF Contingent Dinner

St Dunstan's College CCF with whom we have a strong and happy relationship goes from strength to strength. On the left you see cadets at the Armed Services Flag Raising Day in Guildhall Yard last Monday.

On the same day their enormously talented Corps of Drums performed in the garden of Stationers Hall before the City Livery Club Civic Lunch.

A number of us were privileged to attend as guests their Contingent Dinner in the college main hall on Saturday evening.

A black tie event the room was full of gilded youth immaculately dressed and immaculately behaved. The Contingent Dinner is an 'end of term' affair whose principal role is to celebrate the achievements of the year and award prizes to the winners in various categories, including the award of the Coxswain's Sword generously gifted last year by Court Assistant David Williams. The guest of honour was Tim Lowe Commodore of the Marine Warfare School. With wide international experience and many ship commands he was in a perfect position to explain the role of the military in the modern world and, essentially, the human requirements of those who serve. It is people he said, not equipment or services, which are at the heart of successful operating units and in this respect he was full of praise for the schools CCF which he had at an earlier time had the responsibility of checking and monitoring.
I cannot say I was in any way reminded of the dinners I suffered when I was at school. On Saturday night we were treated to a quite excellent dinner and listened to some very mature speakers from amongst the CCF award winners. If the CCF is representative of the school as a whole Past Master Sir Paul Judge, Chairman of the Governors, and an old boy should be a very happy man.

Common Hall-Election of Sheriffs

The offices of Sheriff and Alderman go back to medieval times and the office of Sheriff is older than any other in the City. Until the institution of the Mayoralty in 1189 Sheriffs or Shire Reeves governed the City as the King's representatives. These days two Sheriffs, an Aldermanic Sheriff proposed by the Court of Aldermen and a lay Sheriff are elected on, or as close to, Midsummer's Day in Guildhall. The election was on Friday last. These annual elections are grand ceremonial occasions with the full panoply of the Civic City's great and good performing. For it is a performance with much bowing and, for the Lord Mayor, hat doffing.
This year there was only one candidate for the role of Aldermanic Sheriff so he was elected unopposed.For the office of lay Sheriff 3 candidates competed. The hall was full and Liverymen, who are exclusively entitled to vote, overflowed into other rooms. The 3 candidates stood and individually verbally presented their case. The vote was taken by a show of hands which were counted by tellers. The election rules are perhaps not as simple as they might be and in the event that the votes cast for each candidate show that there is less than a 10% difference in the votes cast between the candidates and the candidate with the majority then a second, written poll vote is called for on another occasion. Which is what happened on Friday. The poll vote requires Liverymen to vote again on July 8th at Guildhall.
The election of the Sheriffs coincides with the election of other officers, such as Auditors, on the same occasion. Most interestingly Ale Connors are voted for. What or who are Ale Connors I sense you asking. Four Ale Connors are voted and their role, which is an ancient one, is to examine the measures used by beer and liquor sellers to guard against fraud. Early trading standards folk if you like. Originally ''to examine and assay the beer and ale, and to take care that they were good and wholesome and sold at proper prices according to the assize..'' was to ensure that the ale brewed by the many ale houses didn't contain too much sugar. Sugar being a way of using cheaper grain and hops--excessive sugar being a sign of poor ingredients. It is said that the ale connor had a simple task. He would visit a pub and upon being given a pint of ale would pour half of it on to a bench and sit in the puddle. He wore strong leather breeches. He drank the remainder and after half an hour stood up. If his leather breeches stuck to the wooden bench there was too much sugar in the ale. I find this explanation handed down through history charming, and probably true if you believe there are fairies at the bottom of the bottle.

After the election we were hosted to a delightful lunch at Farmers and Fletchers an intimate hall well suited to a smaller more informal gathering. Masters from some 12 Companies were there and the excellent lunch was accompanied by some lively conversation given the hung result of the election. The name of the successfully elected lay Sheriff will not now be known until the close of play on July 8

City Livery Club Lunch

Straight from the Armed Forces Flag Raising ceremony in Guildhall Yard to the City Livery Club Civic Reception and Luncheon at Stationers Hall. The weather was beautiful and so the drinks reception was held in the garden of the hall which as you can see from the picture above is quite lovely and lends itself perfectly to this sort of occasion. There I met many friends from other Companies before we went up the garden steps into the hall for lunch.

The City Livery Club was founded nearly 100 years ago in 1914 and comprises not just City Liverymen but Liverymen and Freemen of all Livery Companies as well having Associate membership for related bodies such as the Guild of Freemen, the Society of Young Freemen, Ward Clubs and others. So the membership is wide, many Marketors are members and I am pleased to say that this year's President, who hosted the Luncheon, is a Marketor--Valerie Boakes. It was a beautifully run event with fine food and wine and good company. Valerie spoke well in proposing the guests-and then the Lord Mayor spoke. I have heard Lord Mayor Michael Bear speak now at least half a dozen times at various events. He invariably finds a way to introduce into his speeches puns, one after another. Who puts him up to this I wonder: his wife, his speech writers or is he a natural punster. I look forward greatly to hearing him again at our Mansion House Banquet. If I can Bear more puns.

Flag Raising Day

Last Monday, 20 June, was Armed Forces Flag Raising day in Guildhall Yard. Guildhall was not the only venue for this ceremony, flag raising was going on all over the country last Monday. It is an event to recognise the contribution made to our country by those who serve or have served in the armed forces. It is an opportunity to demonstrate support for the men and women who make up the armed forces from currently serving troops to service families and from veterans to cadets.

It was a grand ceremony with representative contingents from all the services as well as cadets and, of course, a military band. The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs were there in full robes and the Lord Mayor spoke eloquently of the debt owed to those who serve in the various branches of the services. With immaculate timing, as the clock struck noon, the flag you see above was raised over Guildhall. As one of the crowd of onlookers I then had to slip away as, like the Lord Mayor I was due at the City Livery Club Lunch.

Justice to Tea

In 1866 Parliament announced a competition for the design of a new central Supreme Court and 11 architects submitted their ideas. 7.5 acres of slums were compulsorily purchased; 450 dwellings, housing more than 4,000 people, were demolished and having chosen an architect, in 1873 construction of what we know as the Royal Courts of Justice began. With more than 3.5 miles of corridors and more than 1,000 rooms it took more than 8 years to complete. The Marketors who had a guided tour of the building on Thursday happily were not required to walk all 3.5 miles.
It is an architecturally marvellous place in which the Court of Appeal and High Court sit hearing varied and sometimes complex cases. It is to here, in a tradition dating back 800 years, that on the second Saturday of November each year the new Lord Mayor rides in his Golden coach to be sworn in before the Lord Chief Justice of England and to pledge his loyalty to the crown and to the duties of his office.





Both inside and outside there are remarkable architectural features and statues, none more remarkable than the mosaic floor of the main hall which measures 238 feet in length by 48 feet in width with every small piece of mosaic being laid individually, not in blocks. Not forgetting the clock hanging outside which if it ever breaks down may remain silent forever as it is reputed that its maker took the secret of its balance with him to the grave and no-one has ever managed to duplicate it.After a thoroughly fascinating tour the party crossed the road to the infinitely smaller premises of Twinings Tea where a room had been set aside for us to learn more about tea from an expert. A slide presentation and practical exploration of tea introduced us to the different types of tea which we were then encouraged to taste and to 'slurp' to gain the greatest flavour out of each tea. It was a fascinating and highly educative experience much enjoyed by all present and concluded with, yes, tea and cakes.