On the 28th January we had the Myddelton Lunch at Trinity House where I serve as a member of the General Lighthouse Authority . It was splendid affair with the Lord Mayor as the Guest of Honour .I give my speeches which record the essence of the event - I will fill in the bit about the Lord Mayor's speech when I am happy that it is a fair record
Welcome to Guests
Wardens, My Lord Mayor, Mr Sheriff, Liverymen, Ladies & Gentlemen
First before I say anything formally may I thank you all for coming today it gives Lis and I a great delight in seeing you .I trust that you have all enjoyed the wonderful surroundings and delicious food.
So on your behalf may I thank the Deputy Master of Trinity House for the use of his facilities and , as always Mark Grove for the catering . May I also thank the Rev Canon Flora Winfield of St Mary at Hill who conducted such an uplifting service this morning . This matched the very pleasant Christmas Service that some of us attended in December . The Rev Winfield apologises that she cannot be with us for lunch
Today we celebrate the granting of Livery status to our Company in 2000 and to do so we describe this as the Myddelton lunch in honour of Sir Hugh Myddelton . Sir Hugh did so much in improving water services in London and oversaw the creation of the New River at the start of the 17th century .
May I now welcome our guests
First welcome to the The Master World Trader John- Burbidge- King and Clerk Gaye Duffy. John has had a very active career in world trading and as a result speaks Arabic . So Marharban ,
Next may I welcome Nick Gilks accompanied by Penny Gilks of the Maidstone Sea Cadets. Nick does some wonderful things with the young people of Maidstone and we give them support through Court Assistant Trevor Harrington , so thank you to both of them
May I welcome Paul Hillman President of CIWEM – one of the Institutions with which we have close working relationships and we will see more of Paul as he will be the principal guest at our Election Court lunch in April.
It also gives me great pleasure to welcome Sheriff Nigel Pullman accompanied by Elizabeth Truesdale . Lis and I have got to know Nigel and Elizabeth on the circuit starting with a very wet day in October at the Thames Fishing Experiment when we nearly floated out of the Marquee . An extra connection today is that Nigel was Clerk of the World Traders when we received our Livery and Ted Jackson who is with us today was the Master. Welcome
Now finally a special welcome to the Lord Mayor Alderman Roger Gifford and the Lady Mayoress , Clare . In the short time we have available it is impossible to extol all his achievements , but apart from a love of the livery which we share, I notice from his CV that he has very strong connections with Sweden where I also worked for a while – so in Swedish - Valkommen
I have here a cheque for £1,000 for the Lord Mayor’s Appeal .This includes the Gifford Wood in Epping Forest I think that this is very important for us as we all realise now the critical relationship between forest and woodland conservation and water conservation.With my new responsibilities in Wales for forests – this is another interest we share
May I say that Lis and I are having a very enjoyable year and we do our best to keep the blog up to date . I have to report that most of the projects this year are on track and I am very pleased that we have enough material to make our book Reflections on Water a very viable project . Thank you to all have contributed and there is just enough time left if any of you here today would like to add your piece as well.
When we toast the health of our guests we must really mean what we say rather than going through a process . So as we are here today as water conservators contributing to the health and wealth of the City –it makes absolute sense for us to toast the health of our guests in water . So members of the company please be upstanding with your glasses of water and toast the health of our guests
The Guests
Now responding to the Lord Mayor's toast
Wardens, My Lord Mayor, Mr Sheriff, Liveryman, Ladies & Gentlemen
May I thank the Lord Mayor for his speech it was most insightful . The Lord Mayor has reminded us of how in bygone times the distinction between the arts and sciences was not as rigid as it has been in more recent times. I have in mind great polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci . Well we are beginning to rediscover this and for example CIWEM has an arts and environment network . One of the ways that we can do this reconnection is through education which respects the learning of bygone times but always challenges to determine if there are better ways of doing things . And so this company, through its Charitable Trust ,supports students
The Company and Trust have a very successful University Bursary programme for Masters students studying water, waste and environment topics. We currently have about 11 universities in the programme. In addition to supporting our own Bursary student we give a prize for the best dissertation. Recently two awards have been made, to Myngyong Tian studying at Wadham College and to Anthony Hall – Tony - at Sheffield University.
Myngyong cannot be with us today but Tony is, together with his supervisor Dr Steve Thornton. Anthony’s dissertation was entitled ‘Characteristics of Microbial Communities in a denitrifying Bioreactor’ – not necessarily a subject for discussion over Sunday lunch, but one of importance to our Company. I should like to congratulate Tony and, as a symbol of our long-standing support to this research, I should like to present him with a Certificate, and a water jug and glasses. As it happens, Tony was also our 2012 Bursary student at Sheffield.Tony please come forward and receive your prize and certificate and water jug .
Whilst I am on this theme may I mention two students from Wadham College Oxford, both studying for an MSc in “Water Science, Policy and Management” who are in receipt of our bursaries.
Rose Norman. Rose has a BSc in Ecological Science from the University of Edinburgh with specialisations in conservation and ecological management. Rose joined the MSc immediately after Edinburgh .
Jane Crowder. Jane has a Master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Liverpool. She spent the last 12 years firstly as an advisor and engineering team leader for Water Aid and then advisor to DFID in Bangladesh. Before starting the MSc she was a member of DFID’s Water and Sanitation Policy Team.
The Lady Mayoress drew the draw for the 100 club which raises money for our charity
We organise a scheme called Pupils Prizes and brochures are available – please take one and encourage your local school to enter .
As far as forthcoming activities are concerned we are making a presentation to the CoL Energy and Sustainability Sub committee and I am being joined by Martin Baggs .We are participating in the City Pancake race on Feb 12 please come and support us – probably under the armpits .We have Company lunch in Highbridge in Somerset on Feb 28 see the website speak to Nigel Mattravers and of course we are supporting the WET 10 Debate at Glaziers Hall on March 4 on what is happening to the weather and organising a dinner debate on the challenges of running a modern water utility at the reform club on April 11 thanks to Nick Reeves of CIWEM with the principal speaker being Martin Baggs
And then after the next court meeting Lis is organising a visit to Windsor Castle on April 24.
The Thames Warden has asked me to remind you of the September visit to Ruthin please register as soon as possible
May I wish you all the best for 2013 and a safe journey home .We raised £805 for our charity in the collection .
