Helping Disadvantaged Students

One of the charities to which our Trust gave significantly this year is the Sir John Cass Foundation Lord Mayor's Bursary Scheme. A title which, as the Lord Mayor himself commented, doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. Last Friday was the official launch of the scheme at the Mansion House which the Chairman of our Trust, Trevor Brignall, and I attended. After speeches the Lord Mayor presented certificates to 19 scholars in recognition of their award of a scholarship to enable them to undertake undergraduate studies.

This scholarship scheme is funded both by Sir John Cass's Foundation and the Lord Mayor's Bear Necessities Appeal. It awards scholarships to young residents facing financial hardship, aged 18-20 from nine inner London boroughs, to pay for their tuition fees, maintenance, and other educational costs over 3 years of study. £1.5 million will be awarded over 5 years--this is not a small scheme. The students between them are going to all the major London universities to study. As he bows out as Lord Mayor, Alderman Michael Bear can take great pride in this legacy which he has created and left behind.

Management Consultants

It was a great pleasure last week to go to Carpenters Hall for the Installation Dinner of Mary Collis the newly installed Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants.

The Management Consultants, at number 105, are a newer Company than the Marketors but are notably active, as are we, in pro bono outreach activity. Mary touched on this in her Master's speech; they provide very considerable external consultancy and mentoring particularly to less well off charities. Their members' commitment to such activities is very great indeed and something towards which we should aim.

The guest speaker after dinner was Sir Peter Gershon who has had an extensive career in the defence industry and at a top level in the public sector, before gathering his current portfolio of public company directorships. He spoke about industry and government relations, their interdependence and how the needs of both might be better met in our troubled times. What it requires it seems is ''Change with Wisdom''-----which just so happens to be the motto of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants as you may be able to discern from their crest above.

Breakfast at the Old Bailey

The breakfast last Wednesday was held to promote the good work undertaken by the Sheriffs and Recorder's Fund. Serendipitously it was hosted by his Honour Judge Peter Beaumont, whose daughter went to the same school and is a good friend of my daughter, so he was not unknown to me. He talked about the workings of the old Bailey and the complicated logistics involved in the moving around of prisoners during a trial. He took us to visit the famous number one court. Whilst beautiful it is not, he explained, at all efficient as a court room not least because of the layout with the jury unable to see the witness at anything other than a sideways angle.
We also saw a more modern court, one of 18 at the Old Bailey, with its recently constructed glass screen in front of where the accused stands.Necessary he explained to prevent the accused from leaping out and rushing across the court room and punching the judge in the face as happened to an unfortunate lady judge not so long ago.
At breakfast Lady Prue Davies, Chairman of the Fund talked about the work of the charity which is focused on helping ex-prisoners get a new start in life and on relieving hardship in the families of serving offenders. It does this to help re-offending by making grants for training, tools of the trade, clothing and household equipment. One of the beneficiaries of the Trust, a reformed character, was at breakfast to pay tribute to what the Fund had done for him to help him put his life back on the straight and narrow. This is a charity not only of great efficiency but also of great compassion. I am glad the Marketors regularly support it.

Annual Curry Dinner

If, as they say, an army marches on its stomach, then our adopted Regiment 151(London) Transport Regiment must move swiftly. As indeed it does as was explained at the annual Curry Evening held at the Sutton TA Centre last Tuesday. The evening started with a macro view of the army, in the context of the Strategic Defence Review which was given by Major General Mark Poffley, the Regiment's Honorary Colonel. He explained that the grand plan would result in a single army not a Regular army and a discrete Territorial army. The single army would comprise full time and part time soldiers with an increasing reliance on the latter. The Regular army is being cut by 20%.

He then discussed theatres of war including Afghanistan where 'winning' was an irrelevant concept since the country is essentially tribal rather than a cohesive nation state.

His opening was followed by presentations from officers of 151 Regiment demonstrating the width of the Regiment's capabilities in providing all the logistical back up for the army sometimes having to fight their way through to provide the needed resources at the front line.

Speeches and presentations were followed by an excellent curry dinner and more extremely interesting conversation. about the actions of the Regiment.. At the end of dinner I was able to present Lt Colonel Adrian Lee, commanding officer of 151, with a framed Freedom of the City of London Certificate, emanating from his Freedom ceremony about which I have blogged earlier. The evening encapsulated the fine relationship between the Marketors and 151 Regiment.

Not forgetting the Bear

I suddenly realise that one of the high points of the Bowden Charter Dinner was the draw for our Lord Mayor's Charity Prize Draw---and I neglected to cover it in my previous blog. Well here is a picture of AnneMarie Hanlon, the winner of the sculpture of the Bear which was the first prize and which has been happily sitting in the Reception of Mansion House all year after Barbara Bear acquired it from the sculptor Lewis Hunter. The second prize was won by Diane Morris and third prize by Mike Barnato. Congratulations all round and our thanks to Matthew Trowbridge who masterminded the ticket sales and to all the many who participated.

Bowden Charter Dinner

This dinner renamed the Bowden Charter Dinner in order to celebrate both the Company's award of its Royal Charter last year and our founding Master Reggie Bowden was held on Wednesday last in the opulence of Drapers Hall. It was a full event due no doubt to the splendour of the venue and the attraction of the speaker.
The dinner was preceded by a Ceremonial Court where the Company admitted seven new Freemen and where I was pleased to recognise Harpreet Sethi of Cass Business school for his dissertation on smartphone apps, particularly related to near field communications--a subject on which I am sure we will progressively hear more.

My, by now well known, theme of innovation was more than adequately addressed by the after dinner speaker Syl Saller. Syl has had a glittering career culminating in her present position as Global Innovation Director at Diageo the global drinks organisation. She gave an impassioned speech relating her company's modus operandi to a single brand --Johnny Walker and its innovative evolution over time as both a brand and a product. It was a pleasure to talk with her over dinner, it was an even greater pleasure to hear her speech--and to judge by the applause the room found it a great pleasure as well. Like Mark Price the MD of Waitrose who spoke on innovation at the Installation Dinner the issue of courage was very much at the forefront of Syl's talk. In today's world you cannot stand still you have to have the courage to take the risks that innovation involves. It's a message that needs to be more widely recognised.

Freedom at last......

It is always a great pleasure to give pleasure and so it was that as the Proposer I was able to be at the ceremony in the Chamberlain's office when Marion Nunn, Past Master Austin Nunn's wife and Valerie Druce, wife of Past Master Harry Druce were both granted the Freedom of the City of London. As their husbands were two of the founders of the Company it was timely that they at last also became Freemen of the City.

The ceremony as always was handled with aplomb by Clerk to the Chamberlain, Murray Craig, who after the ceremony regailed the assembled company with stories and anecdote's of those who had received the Freedom in the past. Here you see the new Freemen with their husbands.It was a very happy occasion which continued over a splendid lunch at the Little Ship club organised by Roddy Mullin.