 There was no rest after the Master’s weekend. On the following Monday, May 20th, I attended a reception and lunch after the Lord Mayor unveiled a blue plaque granted by the City of London Corporation to mark the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (‘RNLI’). The RNLI was initially based at what is now Furniture Makers’ Hall and the noon unveiling was almost 200 years to the day after the first opening. The Fuellers Charitable Trust Fund has been supporting RNLI for 25 years and Elena, our Senior Warden, who has been heavily engaged in the arrangements for a joint RNLI and Company float in the next Lord Mayor’s Parade in November, was another guest. The Hall was very full and the weather pretty warm so it was a hot, noisy and convivial gathering. The RNLI has a long history in London and Tower Lifeboat, based near the Embankment, is the charity’s busiest station, with a crew on duty for 24 hours every day. Fortunately the rest of my week was quiet, spent principally on Company admin and further work on the Membership Group with Ash, our Junior Warden, before ending with a very successful party for Margaret’s birthday, organised by our eldest daughter, to start the first May Bank Holiday weekend. This was a bit early but this meant several relations, including from the United States, could fly over and join us.  On the day after the holiday, Tuesday May 28th, all three Officers joined Alderman and Honorary Member of our Livery Alison Gowman, Chair and founder of the Livery Climate Action Group (‘LCAG’), for a pan-livery working lunch convened by the LCAG and four livery companies - the Insurers, the Engineers, the Information Technologists and the Entrepreneurs. Over sixty delegates discussed risk management and risk transfer opportunities in the implementation of ‘Greentech’, with broad agreement on most key matters, a healthy range of suggestions as how to proceed and a strong appetite for action over ever more discussion! The lunch was followed, that evening, by a Fuellers Advantage meeting at the National Liberal Club. Dr Mike Bluck gave us a fascinating lecture on ‘Small Modular Reactors: Hope or Hype?’. This included an overview of worldwide nuclear power and how SMRs are central to plans for the future. Mike is Director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College and a specialist in nuclear reactor design using advanced computational methods. So ended a day which greatly contributed to my growing knowledge of energy and the complexity of the problems we currently face.  Two days later Margaret and I took the train to Bruges, where we were staying for a long weekend to celebrate, relatively quietly after the previous Friday, her birthday. The weather was similar to the UK, but fortunately the rain held off most of the time and we explored many churches and museums, including several outside the tourist centre and had an enjoyable walk (in the sunshine!) round the City wall: we also enjoyed some excellent meals. We had to return on Sunday afternoon - her actual birthday - to make sure we were at Trinity House on the Monday, June 3rd, in time to process to St Olave’s Church for the Company’s Annual Thanksgiving Service. Our chaplain, Reverend Nick Mottershead, presided and gave an interesting sermon about his life in the City, combining his role a vicar with working as a director in a fintech enterprise.Our Annual Affiliates’ Luncheon and Prizegiving followed immediately after we returned from the Church to Trinity House. This is one of our most important and enjoyable annual events. We award annual prizes to our military affiliates and City University students for outstanding performance during the last year and the event allows the Company and the Fuellers Charitable Trust Fund to demonstrate our support for our affiliated military units and academic award winners. While the Trust Fund provides financial assistance Fuellers also volunteer and act as judges, mentors, advisors - and enthusiastic visitors! Commodore Bill Walworth, a former commander of the Royal Auxiliary fleet and clerk of the Company, a Member of our Livery and a Member of the Board of Trinity House, was our guest speaker and he was as amusing as ever with a series of anecdotes about his and other naval careers. He then awarded the prizes to the nominated members of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, HMS Sultan, 10 Squadron RAF and 152 (Northern Irish) Regiment, as well as award winners from City University.   The next day, June 4th, we had a clash of invitations: first to Mansion House to attend the ’Net Zero Delivery Summit: finance enabling innovation’ conference hosted by the Lord Mayor; and second to King’s College London for an event hosted by its Net Zero Centre, at which industry leaders explored solutions to sustainability through green business. Our resources were accordingly split. Peter Harrison, our Immediate Past Master, and Alex, our Clerk, had attended the launch of the Net Zero Centre in April 2023, since when the Centre has made significant strides in research and collaborations toward decarbonising society. They were both keen to attend and review progress and so the Wardens and I went to Mansion House, where topics included the evolution of carbon markets; provision of finance; the role of transition finance on the road to net zero; and the contribution of ‘green tech’. The Senior Warden had to leave early but the Junior Warden and I were joined, after lunch, by Court Assistant Elect Gavin Towers for the afternoon lectures and discussions before I left them to enjoy the ‘networking’ drinks session at the end of the conference as I had to attend my first meeting as a member of another Committee (mainly social). It is, however, fair comment that we were all beginning to spot a certain repetitiveness in the content of the growing number of net zero related speeches, in many cases combined with requests for very considerable financial donations!I was back at Mansion House the following evening, June 5th, this time as a guest at a City of London Science and Innovation Banquet but again hosted by the Lord Mayor. He also gave an after dinner speech, with his fellow speakers Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the Commonwealth Secretary General and her Special Envoy for Science and Technology, Professor Manahel Thabet, who is a member of our Livery. Lady Scotland was having a busy time as she had also been a speaker at the Mansion House conference the day before and she drew attention to the need for significant financial assistance for the poorer members of the Commonwealth that are being badly impacted by climate change, particular those located in Oceania. The event brought together leaders and experts from science, academia and business to demonstrate the potential for the City to continue to find innovative solutions to new problems. I am not sure quite how my doctorate on fiduciary duties qualified me to attend, but possibly Manahel may have had something to do with it! In any event it was another brain stretching evening, with a slightly different crowd to that at livery company events and a dinner conversation that covered a very wide range of topics. The group with whom Junior Warden Ash and I found ourselves sitting who were also rather younger ……which added to the evening! Margaret and I then changed tack with a visit to Garsington the following evening for an excellent performance of ‘Platée’ followed by a quiet end to what had been another busy week. The General Purposes Committee met at Carmen Hall in the afternoon of the following Monday, June 10th. There were a number of issues to discuss with some of the conversation somewhat heated, in part because of problems with the internet and in part reflecting the late circulation of the agenda and supporting papers leading to confusion over future events: peace was eventually restored. Work then began on a compromise, which was eventually finalised at the Mid-Summer Court meeting the following month. An Industry Group meeting, which I attended the following day, also greatly assisted the compromise. Margaret and I were next scheduled to attend the Bavarian Ball at Mansion House on June 13th. We duly arrived at our London flat to change ….. and my insulin pump sensor failed, which happens only rarely but almost inevitably at the most inconvenient of times…. as my replacements were in Buckinghamshire, to where we had to return and so missed the Ball. It is clear from reports that we missed another great evening! Logistics interrupted again the following Tuesday! I was due to leave our house in Buckinghamshire for Brize Norton and the annual RAF 10 Squadron dinner when we had a power cut. This triggered our fire alarm, which proceeded to go off every few minutes and only stopped if the code was plugged in by hand…… so delaying my departure until the power and silence were restored…. by which time it was far too late for me to make the dinner! Normal order was restored the following evening, Wednesday June 19th, when I attended the annual Milo lecture ‘AI: What if we succeed’. This was hosted by The Architects Company at the Royal Institute of British Architects and was a very interesting talk, particularly and notwithstanding my minimal knowledge of the subject!Margaret and my next engagement - and the last of my month 8 - was the City Liveries Weekend. This is an annual gathering of livery and regional companies, which was held in London for the first time. Registrations were received from 118 Livery and Regional Companies and with the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, City Livery Committee and other City institutions attending there were well over 200 taking part. The weekend started, on Friday June 21st, with an open air barbecue in the garden at the centre of Haberdashers Hall. Fortunately the weather was kind, dry and warm and the evening gave everyone an opportunity to meet old and new faces, with the Lord Mayor warmly welcoming guests but otherwise a very informal event. We were entertained by a band and a group who purported to be the chefs but then broke into short extracts from famous opera, all sung with considerable gusto and skill. The evening concluded with after dinner drinks and an informal departure. The next morning we gathered at the London Centre and Guildhall Library after breakfast, where we were split into groups and introduced to the Corporation staff who were to accompany and guide us. Margaret and I were in a group destined for the London Metropolitan Archive (‘LMA’) and we all duly waited for our bus. This took some time as the traffic diversions in the City at the weekend made any bus journey a challenge but we were eventually collected and taken on our tour. The LMA is a public research centre which specialises in the history of London, caring for and providing access to the historical archives of all manner of organisations from the London area. There are over 100km of books, maps, photographs, films and documents dating back to 1067 in what is one of the finest city archives in the world. It was well worth the visit! We then moved to the Tower of London for a buffet lunch hosted by Brigadier Andrew Jackson, the Director of the Tower of London, in The New Armouries restaurant. We were lucky enough to sit with couples from Sheffield and Hull with whom we and other local livery members shared livery experiences and other topics. Our group was then scheduled for a tour of the Tower but Margaret and I had visited so many times that we decided to excuse ourselves to visit with family who were over from America for the weekend. Then back to the City for a black tie Gala Dinner (with badges!) in the Guildhall after drinks in the Guildhall Art Gallery. Our table included a large number of very familiar faces and I think we all made our guests from out of town very welcome. Sunday started early with the Masters and Prime Wardens Livery Breakfast Meeting in the Guildhall at 0915, after a walk across a very quiet city from the Mansion House underground station. The agenda included a report on the latest survey of the philanthropic actions by the livery movement which was followed by the Lord Mayor leading a discussion as to how we could best advertise the good we do, particularly necessary in the changing political climate. Margaret and many other consorts then joined us for the Livery Church Service in St Lawrence Jewry in Guildhall Yard with the Bishop of London giving the sermon. This marked the end of the weekend, with many of our visitors facing long journeys home – and Margaret and I driving back to Buckinghamshire, where we arrived in time to give Maia and Theia another much enjoyed Sunday afternoon walk in the sunshine. I am sorry this report is being published much later than originally planned but hope you enjoyed the summer and look forward to seeing you at the events in September and October the details of which were in my summer greeting circulated at the beginning of the month! FUTURE EVENTS Dates of future Company and City events are available by clicking here and also on the Events Page.  Alex Maclean BatherClerk Worshipful Company of Fuellers M: 07521-992 653 E: clerk@fuellers.co.uk https://www..fuellers.co.uk https://linktr.ee/fuellerscompany Copyright © 2024 The Worshipful Company of Fuellers, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from Fuellers Our mailing address is: Worshipful Company of Fuellers, Carmen Hall, 186C Fleet Street, London EC4A 2HS unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences |
