Meetings of the Court at Tallow Chandlers’ Hall
In the past few months, I have been working on collating and digitizing the Company archives. The task is now complete and our Company archives have now been safely lodged with the London Metropolitan Archives.
Amongst the archives, I found two photographs taken of the Court in 1954 and 1959, both at Tallow Chandlers’ Hall. As the Court were visiting Tallow Chandlers’ Hall in March 2017 for its Election Court, the Master thought that we should add to the history of our long association with Tallow Chandlers’ Hall and take a photograph for the archives.
The lunch was deliciously catered by Mark Grove and his team at Cook & Butler and we cracked along at a goodly pace. Our guests were admirably introduced by Liveryman Fran Morrison and our Principal Guest, Tim Wonnacott gave a generous and very humorous reply to which I responded initially by drenching poor Tim in a glass of water- he was very kind about it( sorry Tim!). I was very pleased to show off the newly found Livery Grant of Arms and Letters Patent which have been missing for many years- our Clerk tenaciously sought them out, and the new Immediate Past Master, Chris Allen, and his IPM, Mark Gower-Smith have funded a beautiful representation and they are now resplendent in frames carved with tobacco leaves( or close to); Sandra also located a huge banner not seen since 1985 and Angus Menzies, Clerk to the Master Mariners and never shy of a challenge saw to it that it was displayed on the Quarterdeck.
Whilst all this was going on, apparently biblicalstyle downpours were being had all over London- oblivious to all that drama we ended our lunch and trooped back to the quarterdeck where Coffee, Cigars, and Cognac awaited us( I did mention that our Livery enjoyed dining on the High C’ s..) and which seemed to hit the mark – Liveryman Jemma Freeman had kindly provided the torpedo cigars and had had them placed in souvenir tubes with our Crest emblazoned on it. Several of us also sported a limited edition Livery Smoking hat- originally conceived as a sort of shooting hat, it serves its purpose so well as a“ team” hat, that of the twenty ordered, but one remained by the close of the day! Thank you Sandra to the Master Stocker Mariners for allowing us the use of the venue, to Tim Clerkfor being a perfect Principal Guest, and for everyone attending and giving my year such a special start.
The Master
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