Installation Luncheon - Saddlers' Hall
Thursday 7th June 2018
The Installation of a new Master is traditionally followed by a formal lunch or dinner. This year it was the former and it began with a reception in the courtyard of Saddlers' Hall. By no means a given in June, we were blessed with warmth and sunshine which set the mood for the day. As Company members and guests arrived they were greeted with good company, drinks and cigars. The party was getting into quite a swing when the time arrived for us all to be ushered into Saddlers' Hall for lunch, the learned Clerk adopting a stern line to the pleas of the most ardent revellers (you know who you are...).
Received by the Master and Wardens, the guests made their way to the beautiful and light main hall. Our Principal Guest was Margaret Evison, the Founder of the Mark Evison Foundation, and she was joined by the Master Pewterer, Ann Buxton, and the Master Distiller, Bryan Burrough. We were also joined by the Past Master Glass Seller and Shrieval candidate, Gwen Rhys. Together, the guests enjoyed a fine meal of Scottish smoked salmon mousseline, rump of salt marsh lamb and tarte tatin accompanied by fine wines with each course - a sterling effort by our caterers, Party Ingredients.
Margaret Evison spoke eloquently and movingly about her son, Mark, a talented and charismatic officer in the Welsh Guards who was shot in battle in Helmand, Afghanistan in 2009. Despite the heroic efforts of his men to extricate him from the battlefield and the army's repatriation of Mark to the UK, he lost his life. Margaret has since been a campaigner for better resources for the British army in theatres of war and has written a book about Mark's experience, 'Death of a Soldier'. She has also taken the inspiration of Mark's life to start the charity that bears his name. The Mark Evison Foundation has provided hundreds of young people in London schools with the opportunity to seek and fulfil personal challenges that will help them to achieve better things in life. It is a charity that our Company is proud to support.
The lunch concluded with thanks to our guests and to the Immediate Past Master, Ralph Edmondson. He and his wife, Maureen, have enjoyed an exceptional year, leading our Company with energy and elan. That energy created such heat, they saw fit to cap their year with a restorative trip to Iceland! We hope that it does the trick.
