Page 5 - A4 Journal 2020

The Master’s Year

The Mistress gives her recollection of a “(half) Year to Remember”

My year as Consort to the Master started as it will end in the beautiful church of St Lawrence Jewry
with David Parrott’s address, always so appropriate and well thought out. Last year it was followed,
as always, by his amusing grace, specially composed for the occasion, before the sumptuous dinner
in the glories of Grocers’ Hall. How extraordinary that I should walk into the church as the Senior
Warden’s “Good Woman” (to quote the photographer) and emerge less than an hour later as the
Mistress of the man I married 45 years ago, with the added reward of a medal for me to wear for the
rest of the year at Livery events, of which many lay ahead.
My first event was a dinner at Innholders’ Hall given by the Master and Wardens to thank Roger Lilley for all that he had done
and continues to do for the Company. The second was one of the informal lunches he organises at Ironmongers’ Hall.
My predecessors – and hopefully my successors, if this pandemic eases – will all know that a year as Mistress of a City Livery
Company can lead to an ever expanding waistline, such is the frequency of invitations to dinners, lunches and afternoon teas
but, of course, our year of festivities changed radically in mid March. However there were still around 30 events which I
attended including some of the City Consort tours, lunches and lectures and I know that, as the incoming Mistress, Tina will
continue to enjoy these as and when they resume.
As someone who loves history, music and singing, I have felt tremendously privileged to be allowed to visit so many of our
Livery halls and to take part in so many services in our beautiful city churches - from the poignancy of the Remembrance Day
Service outside St Paul's on November 11th, through the joyful Thanksgiving Service later that day for the outgoing Lord
Mayor at Saint Stephen’s Walbrook and then on to the extraordinary combination of exuberance and pageantry at the Lord
Mayor's show. There was the wonderful service and concert on the feast of Saint Cecilia in Westminster Abbey, followed by
lunch in Lambeth Palace and then an interesting concert in Mercers’ Hall. All the varied and entertaining musical interludes
after dinners in Mansion House and numerous Livery halls in those early few months were a feast for the ears and eyes as
well as for the imagination as I soaked up the many historical and topical facts which were “served up” in the speeches and
introductions. Would that I were younger to be able to assimilate and remember all that I have learned about the City - from
a lecture about Thomas Cromwell to a tour of the Tower and a fascinating lecture on the poisons of Agatha Christie in the
Apothecaries’ Hall. There was another equally riveting talk on the history of the City with all its quirky traditions, some of
which I have attended for the first time, including the election of the Lord Mayor, the Silent Ceremony, the Ceremony of the
Keys and the Inter-Livery pancake race.
Equally, it has been a joy to feel like a student again or to be a tourist in my own capital city being informed about the very
skilled crafts of basket making, turning, assaying gold and working pewter, as well as learning a great deal about the Temple
Church and the Middle Temple when I was hostess to other Consorts for afternoon tea in the Parliament Room. Our guide Ian
Mayes QC was both very informative and extremely witty.

Dinners in the Mansion House are always a wonderful experience with the stunning décor and the fascinating pageantry of
the guards and pikemen in their traditional uniforms. Surely, though, one of the outstanding memories of this year is that of
the current Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress leading a conga of excited young ones (two of our grandchildren among them) on
a grand tour of the Mansion House, starting from a much changed and almost unrecognisable Egyptian Hall, through some of
the state rooms and the kitchens and back again. I wished I had been the grandchild at the Christmas Children’s Party and not
the grandmother, so as to be allowed to join in!
Although I have been able to attend only half a year's worth of events, this has nevertheless been a memorable year and I still
hope to have the opportunity to come to know more of you better, as I would have done had the Masters planned three
weekends not been cancelled. I should like to thank our hard working Clerk for keeping me informed of where I was expected
to be and for dealing with all the many invitations, then unfortunately the cancellations. My thanks also to my predecessor,
Jessica Parrett, for her advice on my rôle and to the other Past Mistresses and the Wardens’ spouses for their support. I am
sorry that I was able to entertain them only once for lunch at our house. Finally I wish Tina, as the incoming Mistress, a very
enjoyable year and one that will hopefully resemble what had previously been the norm in the life of a Mistress.

Lady Barbara Ramsey- Mistress Constructor

Autumn 2020 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors | Page 5