Page 4 - A4 Journal 2020

The Master’s Year

Reflections on a ‘Year to Remember’ from the Immediate Past Master

Dear Fellow Constructors

As my Master’s year comes to a close and I hand over to the Master Elect, I can look back at this
unprecedented year. It has been a year in two parts: October to February were life as normal;
March to September have been anything but normal.
Life as normal for the Company ended with the last physical Court and Livery and Awards Dinner on
12 February and the Senior Members’ Lunch on 13 February 2020. By then I had attended 43
dinners, lunches, concerts, lectures and other events. I was delighted that the Mistress, Barbara,
was able to hold her event at Middle Temple on 4 March, raising money for my chosen charity
REDR. On 9 March 2020 I and the Master Elect attended the Modern Livery Companies’ Spring
Dinner at Vintners’ Hall, since when everything has become virtual. As I write this, there is still a
hope that a final informal lunch - in tables of six without mingling - will take place on 5 October so that I can squeeze in one
last physical event before the end of my year but the storm clouds are gathering.
Like all of you I have had to adapt to a new world of lockdown, social distancing, masks, quarantine, testing and tracing. In all
of this, thanks to the versatility of the Gallant Clerk, the Company has continued to perform almost as normal, with Zoom or
Teams being the means of communication. This has meant that committee meetings have continued as have court meetings
but the three Master’s weekends all had to be cancelled: Singapore, Durham and Mimizan, as did the Court lunches and the Sir
Christopher Wren Banquet. All these and other informal events, which are an important part of Company life have, for the
time being, disappeared.

We have been fortunate to have Gary Jackson, new JCA Stewart Owen and Craig Harding who have made sure that members
of the Company have been able to meet on Thursday evenings by Zoom. The VINE event organised by Gary and hosted by
Stewart has now seen a large proportion of the active Company taking part, together with people who are interested in
joining the Company. We have also, thanks to Craig, had an interesting series of lectures by distinguished speakers (present
company excepted). We started with rebuilding London after the Great Fire of 1666 by Stephen Cornish, now a Freeman, I
spoke about Construction Contracts for the 21st Century, Kevin Hydes spoke about Net Zero Carbon Buildings, Caroline
Gumble spoke about Mental Health in Construction, Deborah Pullen spoke about Innovation in Construction and Femi Santos
spoke about the workings of an architect’s mind. These were excellently presented and well received and are available to be
listened to at your leisure. Deborah, Kevin and I would have presented our talks to an expectant audience in the British High
Commission on my Master’s Weekend in Singapore in April.

Some of you might have seen, that as I become the Immediate Past Master, I shall move back to the bottom of the ladder and
currently intend to seek election, God willing, to reappear in 2028/2029 by which time we all hope that Covid - and Brexit - are
long gone and the country and the people have returned to good health.
It only remains for me to thank everyone for the support they have given me during the year. Nothing would have been
possible without the tireless work of the Gallant Clerk and the hard work of the Wardens and Committees. I am very grateful
to them all.
With my congratulations to the Master Elect for the coming year and my best wishes to you all,

Sir Vivian Ramsey - Immediate Past Master

Members’ News

Members of the Company will no doubt be delighted to learn that two of our members have been elected Master of
another livery company.
Past Master Christine Rigden was installed as Master Mason on 16 June 2020
Liveryman Bill Scott was installed as Master Cooper on 15 June 2020
We send them each our warmest congratulations and hope that their year as Master will not be totally destroyed by the
rigours of Covid-19.

Page 4 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors | Autumn 2020