Installation Court and Luncheon
5th June 2024What a fabulous day at Saddlers' Hall, made all the more pleasant by it not actually raining! Brighter weather makes Saddlers' Hall a wonderful light space for an event.
After what might well be a record number of Freemen and Liverymen to be formally introduced to a single court, it was an honour to be gowned Master by our outgoing Master Elise Rasmussen, along with Tony Scanlan as Senior Warden, Jacqueline Burrows as Renter Warden, Mallory Factor as Third Warden and Terry Fenner-Leitao as Fourth Warden. It is wonderful to have such a great team to work with!
Also of course, I installed Carolyn as my consort!
Elise has gone to more events than any of us thought possible in a year, despite working full time as well. She has been a tremendous ambassador for the company and I am sure I will benefit from her wisdom and experience during my year.
The big surprise of the day was the arrival of our son Robin from his home in Canada. Our family and our Clerk Sandra had conspired to keep it a secret from Carolyn and I, so we were bowled over when he appeared before us after the Court meeting finished. Unfortunately, our daughter was not well enough to come, so having Robin there along with various family and friends really made our day!
As we had hoped, the weather was good enough for us to have the reception outside in the courtyard at Saddlers Hall, before we went inside for Lunch.
Party Ingredients provided us with a very good meal, light but very tasty, so thank you to them for their efforts.
Terry Fenner-Leitao produced a very good guest speech, giving us more detail of the Saddlers' Hall history, in particular its connections with the Intelligence Services during the second world war. He introduced our guest speaker Arend van der Sluis, shareholder and former CEO of the Tembo Group and Hugh Taylor, Prime Warden of the Saddlers' Company.
Arend flew in on the first flight from Amsterdam to London City, arriving on time, which was a great relief! He gave us a very interesting history of his family's business and its different connections to the tobacco industry, including its transition from cigar business to high tech machine builder. He showed a fascinating example of an Albatross wing bone pipe, part of his family's collection of tobacco artefacts, and managed to weave in my own varied interactions with his family group, from which I retired a few days before the installation. I presented him with a churchwarden clay pipe from the company to add to his collection!
I replied to his speech and introduced the new Freemen and Liverymen to the assembled company: Freemen Scott Haugh, Dr Sudhanshu Patwardhan and Jan York, Freeman and Liveryman Nicholas Louras and Liverymen Michael Bond, Kevin Burd, Mario Cescutti, Mark Johnson-Hill, Dr Craig Paterson, Will Rasmussen and Ryan Selby. A Big crop of new members which is wonderful.
I was delighted to present Elise with her Past Master's badge and Carolyn presented her consorts Will Rasmussen and Courtney Lambert with their Past Consorts badges.
Finally Elise gave a moving speech about her year in office which closed a truly enjoyable event.
Thank you also to our Clerk Sandra, Treasurer Ian, Honorary Chaplain Father Jack, Beadle Wayne and Clerk's assistant Bill for all their efforts in organising the day and making sure all went smoothly.
It was a wonderful start to year and we are honoured and pleased by the welcome we received.
Thank you to everyone for making it such a wonderful day!