October
My Mastership experience began before it had officially started with an invitation, as Master – Elect, to the Worshipful Company of Constructor’s Installation Service and Dinner on the eve of my own Installation.
Naturally the Installation Court Meeting, Church Service and Luncheon are a highlight of any Master’s year and I was delighted that the Lord Mayor the Rt Hon Alderman Dr Andrew Parmley was able to join us. It certainly was a most fitting way to begin the year in which we will celebrate the 450th Anniversary of the grant of our Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1568. It is a tremendous honour to have been elected to serve as Master and to be the third generation of the Fuller family to hold the office and the seventh Fuller Master in all. I hope that everyone will have enjoyed the day as much as Catherine and I did.
The next day I had the privilege of attending the Prizegiving Ceremony at the City of London School for Girls where the standard of achievement across the entire curriculum was hugely impressive with academic, sporting and musical attainment at the forefront. Indeed the standard of the musical performances was better than some professional events I have attended. Congratulations to all the prize winners but particularly to Isobel Picken the grand daughter of late Court Assistant Ian Picken who won one of the Tylers and Bricklayers Mathematics prizes.
The ensuing month was a fairly constant stream of events or functions the highlight of which was undoubtedly the UK Young Builder of the year Awards held on the House of Commons Terrace and hosted by Baroness Smith of Basildon and the Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle. Lindsay was apprenticed as a bricklayer so it was a happy coincidence that he was presenting the awards and he will hopefully present our own Annual Craft Awards in 2019.
November
The month began with a flurry of events initially centred around the Annual Act of Remembrance and the Installation of the new Lord Mayor. Laying a simple cross to mark the opening of the Garden of Remembrance in St. Paul’s Churchyard on the 100th anniversary of the date British and Canadian troops finally captured the village of Passchendaele was extraordinarily moving and a huge but humbling honour.
There were also events to celebrate the outgoing Lord Mayor’s year of office including a particularly good Thanksgiving Service at St. Stephen’s Wallbrook presided over in part by Reverend Sally Muggridge the wife of Liveryman and Steward David Williams and of course the Lord Mayor’s Show at which I was delighted to see the Lady Mayoress on horseback accompanied by her two daughters who were coincidentally at school with my son. An excellent start to what I am sure will be another superb Mayorality and I take this opportunity to wish Charles and Samantha Bowman a fulfilling and enjoyable year.
A variety of lectures, lunches and dinners followed together with a number of awards ceremonies. I was particularly delighted to present an award at the Annual Brick Awards in the company of comedian and impressionist Jon Culshaw although I am still puzzled as to why my stage entry music was the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive - I managed to keep my dinner jacket on although the temptation to have a Saturday Night fever moment was great!
Other awards included the Plaisterers Training Awards and the William Morris Fellowship Awards where our own Liveryman Emma Simpson won the inaugural Gwyn Watkins award, a much deserved honour and recognition for the work and commitment Emma provides to the Fellowship. I also had the pleasure of representing the Company at the SkillsShow with the Chairman of the Craft Committee. This event, held annually at the NEC, Birmingham and particularly the SkillBuild competition, is truly inspirational and I would encourage all members. Again we were kindly hosted by the NFRC and TTA and I thank both organisations for the generosity.
The Lord Mayor’s address and reception at Mansion House detailed the plans for the mayoralty in the coming year including the new approach to the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal which is to be run over a three year cycle and will support three charities key to the Mayoral theme of ‘A Better City For All’. The Charities are Place2Be, OnSide Youth Zones and Samaritans.
December & January
The build up to the Festive Season saw a number of dinners and lunches including being entertained at Charlton Athletic by Hadlow College which has interests in a large number of educational institutions including the University of Greenwich, Hadlow College, Ashford College and South West Kent College to name but a few. The Hadlow Group provide a wide range of vocational training and it is hoped that we may be able to set up some training courses relevant to our three crafts and possibly extending these via the new Pan Livery Collaboration project, to other Livery Companies.
December’s highlight was the Company’s Annual Carol Service at St. Margaret’s Lothbury and I am most grateful to the Company Chaplain the Reverend John Cook for stepping in at the last moment to preside. The service as ever, was wonderful and a suitably evocative start to the Christmas period and special thanks are due to Freeman Richard Townend and the Lothbury Singers. Afterwards we enjoyed good fellowship as ever at the City University Club but sadly we will need to seek a new venue for next year as the Club are moving to new premises at Fenchurch Street which will be too distant for our purposes.
Sadly the Carol Service was preceded by news of the sudden death of our beloved Almoner Sarah Stroud and it was good to see so many members of the Company at the Funeral Service in Holy Trinity Church, Claygate - a church that Sarah and her husband Andrew, late Court Assistant and Chairman of the Craft Committee, did so much to help renovate and support. The service was very moving and a fitting memorial to Sarah who will be much missed.
After the Carol Service Catherine and I took the opportunity to re-charge our batteries in the Far East mindful that this would be one of the few quiet periods in which we could get away. Returning refreshed from Cambodia, Laos and Thailand (where, in each case, the internet was better than in Suffolk!) we were again back into the fray with Catherine’s Livery Company, the Framework Knitters’ Winter Dinner at Painter and Stainers’ Hall. Whilst away I was delighted to see that Andrew Parmley’s excellent Mayoralty was recognised with the award of a Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List and a similar honour extended to Lindsay Hoyle. Congratulations Sirs!
February
February is a surprisingly busy month beginning with the Nominations Committee meeting at which a new Almoner was identified immediately followed by Finance and Communications Committee meetings and Common Hall. It was a little disappointing that more Liverymen did not take the opportunity to attend Common Hall which is the one opportunity in the year to ask direct and if required difficult, questions of the Master, Wardens and Court. The event was followed by a truly excellent meal served with extremely fine wines with excellent fellowship – an appropriate reward for those who braved the elements.
The elements were firmly in evidence at the next event as the ‘Beast from the East’ reduced the Inter-Livery Pancake Races to a static display of tossing skills. The somewhat arbitrary approach to the judging resulted in a surprise win for the Poulters who are of course the organising Company. My thanks to Team T&B (Clare Banks, James Parris and James Hockley) and all the supporters for braving the cold and ice and hopefully next year there will be a true race when we can again show our athletic prowess. Do please come along and support this event which is great fun and is an important fundraiser. There is always the delight of watching tourists shaking their heads at the eccentricity of the English! Thanks also to Liveryman Michael Ash for his generous sponsorship of the event.
The month concluded with various lunches, lectures and receptions, and most notably, the Vintners Dinner an event memorable not just for the very fine wines but also for the Vintners’ Company song which is sung with much gusto as part of the speeches and the other musical entertainment provided by Escala, finalists in Britain’s Got Talent in 2008!
One of the pleasures of being Master is to visit inspirational Charities and Institutions and Catherine and I were mightily impressed by the work undertaken by the St. Edmunds Charity when we visited them in Norwich. The Charity provides vocational training, education and support for excluded school children and further vocational training for elder students who are otherwise unable to access this. It is a sad reflection of how poorly vocational training is viewed in this country that only those who might be dubbed ‘problem’ students receive this yet the vocational training allied with the support and education they receive means that some 80% of St. Edmunds’ students outperform their peers at GCSE maths and English. Hopefully the new technical qualifications will enable at least T1 and T2 to be delivered as part of the core curriculum.
Another pleasure of being Master is to attend the Freedom of the City of London Ceremonies for our Livery Freemen. This important and historic ceremony fascinating and a special experience for those receiving the Freedom and I’m delighted to say I’ve attended three such ceremonies already and with a growing membership hope to be attending several more.
March promises to be a busy month with highlights including our Annual Craft Awards at Trinity House on the 5th and the Lord Mayor’s Mansion House Dinner on the 15th.