THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGISTS FELLOWSHIP
WCIT Fellowship
Contributed by Liverymen Peta Walmisley & Tim Rhodes
A Summers’ Walk Through Our Capital
O nce again we had Diane Burstein to lead us in a City Walk, this time, on the 24th August, from Tower Hill to Wapping.
Twenty-two members and guests of the WCIT met at Trinity Gardens, where Diane showed us first the memorial to all the seafarers who lost their lives in World War II- a huge number. We then walked East past the Tower of London, and saw the office of the Mayor of London( not Guildhall!) on the opposite bank, and Tower Bridge, which is not as old as you would suppose! Following the embankment, we stopped at St Katherine Docks, where she told us about the convent that had occupied the site before the docks were built; they were originally used to receive cargo from all over the world, but are now a marina housing some large as well as interesting boats. The Gloriana, which took part in the Queen’ s Diamond Jubilee Pageant, was there.
The next walk is planned for 17 May 2017, when we will visit Spitalfields. Details will be shown on EventBrite and circulated in the New Year by the Events Panel. Please do come along!
A Visit to the Jaguar F Type in the Making
A visit to the Jaguar F type production line at Castle Bromwich, organised by Liveryman Bob Mackman, on behalf of the Events Panel, took place on 14th September, attended by 22 WCIT members and guests.
The F type is Jaguar ' s 2 seat, high end, sports car introduced in 2013. The factory targets to make 60 per day, the majority of which are exported.
Past the headquarters of the River Police and jetties with old barges, seeing the old wharves across the river, as well as a large amount of warehouses redeveloped into apartments on both sides of the river. We visited the Hermitage Memorial Garden, in memory of the children who were killed and injured in the bombings during the Second World War, and further along a Gallows Garden, where the forerunners of the River Police had hanged criminals and put their heads on spikes to deter others! We passed the‘ Town of Ramsgate’ pub, as well as a school with definite divisions for boys and girls! We finished the day with the usual dinner and drinks together.
Apart from the general interest of visiting a car production plant, a focus for the attendees was to see the use of robots in a complex manufacturing process. Over 300 of these devices construct the basic generic aluminium car shell, after which each car is identified with a buyer and the rest of the process- some 75 % of the total production ' track '- is done by hand at ' stations ', rather than on a moving line.
The lasting impression for the attendees, however, was probably not the robots, but the all-pervasive attention to quality which Tata Motors introduced.
WCIT Nostalgia Lunch
1992 Members
A further‘ nostalgia’ lunch was held in May 2016, this year attended by 30 members of the WCIT who had been members when Livery was granted in 1992. They enjoyed a delicious meal in the Livery Room, followed by drinks in our treasures area and were able to meet colleagues and friends from that time to reminisce.
Members from 1992 enjoying lunch in our Livery Room.
They were welcomed by the then Master, Alderman Sir David Wootton, and joined by the then Senior Warden, Chris Histed, plus the Clerk Mike Jenkins of course! The Master thanked Peta Walmisley for organising this happy occasion.
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