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.
Churchill at Yalta with Roosevelt, Stalin and cigar, 1945
In contrast, Winston Churchill enjoyed a great cigar, and made sure everyone knew it. This year, a halfsmoked Cuban cigar that Churchill didn’ t finish in 1941 came up for auction. The great man had left it in an ashtray on board HMS Duke of York while on a critical mission to the USA. It was picked up by the ship’ s chaplain, the Rev Robert Evans, and carefully preserved by his family for 77 years. At auction in Shropshire in May 2018, this extraordinary relic fetched £ 2,600.
After the links between smoking and disease gained acceptance in the 1950s and 60s, some brave efforts were made to launch alternative products. One was a no-tobacco, no-nicotine cigarette called Bravo, launched in the USA in 1965. It didn’ t do well – perhaps because it was made of lettuce. One reviewer is said to have reported:“ It ' s like smoking old socks”.
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 Sadly, emblazoned the Bravo guys on seem it. Several to have of been us also chasing sported a the limited wrong edition goal by Livery trying Smoking to preserve hat smoking- originally while conceived eliminating as nicotine a sort of. Today shooting’ s innovators hat, it serves believe its it’ s purpose not the nicotine so well you as a should“ team” eliminate hat, that; of the the idea twenty is to let ordered smokers, get but( relatively one remained harmless by the) low close doses of of the nicotine day!, Thank without you the to harmful the Master effects Mariners of inhaling for smoke allowing from us the use burning of the herbs venue. We, to’ ve Tim come for a being long way a perfect since Pliny Principal the Guest Elder thought, and for inhaling everyone smoke attending could and cure giving coughs my. year such a special start.
Fran Morrison The Liveryman Master
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