The GLASS SELLER Newsletter of The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London Issue Twenty Four Winter 2009/2010 O n December the 10th 2009 at Stationers’ Hall Richard Lawman was installed as The Master of the Glass Sellers Company for 2010. Following the Court and an excellent Installation Dinner Richard gave the following address to the Company. It is a great honour to address you this evening as your Master and I hope that I can live up to your expectations throughout the next year. My year ahead will be dedicated to three main causes. The Livery and the glass trade, my family and business and our support of City affairs. I must start by speaking on behalf of the Mistress, who I think is to be congratulated in making it to this dinner, she wishes me to thank you for all your good wishes in cards and phone calls and flowers. I would also say how good it is that we have three of our children with us tonight. Turning to our speakers, I would firstly like to join Immediate Past Master Robin in his comments regarding those who have helped him through his year of office, the assistance of these mainly honorary helpers form the backbone of the Company. However, Robin was the leader and it is through his hard work over the last year, that the fortunes of the Company are measured. He is a hard act to follow. Robin spent ten years as our Honorary Treasurer prior to becoming Master and this has given him a great insight into the running of the Company and he has used this knowledge to lead the Company so well over the last year. The high spots for me have been the Jolly to Saumur organised by Robin and Caroline which was a very happy “family” affair. Followed by the rectification of that age old problem regarding our Coat of Arms, how our forebears could have allowed us to remain illegitimate for 345 years, I cannot truly understand, however, with the guidance of Past Master John Hitch we are at last legitimate and have our very own registered Coat of Arms, which you see on the front page of your menu. Robin you have been ably assisted this year by your Mistress and on behalf of the Company I cannot thank you enough. To our Renter Warden, Vivian Bendall for his welcome to the guests, he did this with consummate skill as befits a politician. I am looking forward to the support of the two Wardens during the next year, as we enter the new decade with much to do for the future. Last but not least my many thanks to my old friend Philip for his superb and funny response on behalf of the guests. I have spent many hours in his company over the last twenty years, mostly walking around the golf course at Moor Park, he is a mean golfer and takes no prisoners, I also have been, along with many others, the butt of his humour during many social gatherings. It may come as a surprise to many of our Liveryman that Philip is probably the longest serving Freeman of this Company, eighteen years. When I asked our Honorary Clerk whether it was form to allow him to respond on behalf of the guests, she gave me a challenge, yes she said I could allow him to reply, but during the next year you must rectify this most unsatisfactory situation by persuading him Richard Lawman installed as Master
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The GLASS SELLERNewsletter of The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London
Issue Twenty Four Winter 2009/2010
On December the 10th2009 a t S ta t ioners ’
Hall Richard Lawman wasinstalled as The Master ofthe Glass Sellers Companyfor 2010. Following theCourt and an excellentInstallation Dinner Richardgave the following addressto the Company.
It is a great honour to address you thisevening as your Master and I hope that Ican live up to your expectationsthroughout the next year.
My year ahead will be dedicated to threemain causes. The Livery and the glasstrade, my family and business and oursupport of City affairs.
I must start by speaking on behalf of theMistress, who I think is to be congratulatedin making it to this dinner, she wishes meto thank you for all your good wishes incards and phone calls and flowers. I wouldalso say how good it is that we have threeof our children with us tonight.
Turning to our speakers, I would firstly
like to join Immediate Past Master Robinin his comments regarding those who havehelped him through his year of office, theassistance of these mainly honoraryhelpers form the backbone of theCompany. However, Robin was the leaderand it is through his hard work over thelast year, that the fortunes of the Companyare measured. He is a hard act to follow.Robin spent ten years as our HonoraryTreasurer prior to becoming Master andthis has given him a great insight into therunning of the Company and he has usedthis knowledge to lead the Company sowell over the last year. The high spots forme have been the Jolly to Saumurorganised by Robin and Caroline whichwas a very happy “family” affair.Followed by the rectification of that ageold problem regarding our Coat of Arms,how our forebears could have allowed usto remain illegitimate for 345 years, Icannot truly understand, however, with theguidance of Past Master John Hitch we areat last legitimate and have our very ownregistered Coat of Arms, which you see onthe front page of your menu. Robin youhave been ably assisted this year by your
Mistress and on behalf of the Company Icannot thank you enough.
To our Renter Warden, Vivian Bendallfor his welcome to the guests, he did thiswith consummate skill as befits apolitician. I am looking forward to thesupport of the two Wardens during thenext year, as we enter the new decade withmuch to do for the future.
Last but not least my many thanks to myold friend Philip for his superb and funnyresponse on behalf of the guests. I havespent many hours in his company over thelast twenty years, mostly walking aroundthe golf course at Moor Park, he is a meangolfer and takes no prisoners, I also havebeen, along with many others, the butt ofhis humour during many social gatherings.It may come as a surprise to many of ourLiveryman that Philip is probably thelongest serving Freeman of this Company,eighteen years. When I asked ourHonorary Clerk whether it was form toallow him to respond on behalf of theguests, she gave me a challenge, yes shesaid I could allow him to reply, but duringthe next year you must rectify this mostunsatisfactory situation by persuading him
Richard Lawman installed as Master
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to become a Liveryman, I fear that thismay be an expensive exercise, but Ianticipate that the cellars at Moor Parkwill be full enough for me to try. This isthe first of many challenges for my year.
I started my year two days before myInstallation as I was entertained to lunchby the Master Spectacle Maker and mostenjoyable it was. It is particularly pleasingthat we are joined by the Master thisevening and also the Master Barber andMaster Basketmaker as the RenterWarden has said, it is a pleasure to haveyou with us.
At this time in the year it is usually theopportunity for us to award the GlassSellers Tankard to a member of the crew ofHMS Sceptre our adopted nuclearsubmarine, unfortunately at present she ison operations somewhere under the ocean.We will have to arrange for thispresentation to be made at a future functionin the New Year, and this brings me to mynext challenge, as this is the lastoperational trip for Sceptre and our boat isdue to be de-commissioned in 2010. Ourrelationship with this part of the Navy is along one and we will be seeking, throughour contacts a new submarine, perhaps,dare I speculate, the first of the new classof what is now referred to as an “attack”submarine, but used to be known by themuch more descriptive term as a “hunterkiller”. HMS Astute left Barrow in Furnessa few weeks ago for her home at Faslaneand is the first of a new class of whatshould be five boats. I spent manyproductive years visiting Barrow inFurness in the 70s and 80s, working in theshipyard planning and constructing thefacilities for building these submarines. Ihave a soft spot for this the most westerlyindustrial town in England.
We enter a new decade with a lot in frontof us, in 2014 the Company will be 350years old and we are already planning forthis event, as can be seen the history of theLivery Companies goes back a long way andwe are relatively young compared with the
Great Twelve, however, all the LiveryCompanies began life as a form of tradeassociation, both to regulate that trade as inthe Spectacle Makers or as protection in thecase of the Glass Sellers. In some cases theCompanies still remain as prescribed, butmany have opened their doors to other tradesand professions, we are one of theseCompanies. However, we have notabandoned our trade, far from it; I believethat this should be the main focus of my yearas Master. As I am sure all the Members ofthe Livery know, we plan to take the Liveryon a Jolly to Liverpool in June, the mainpurpose, besides having I hope a jolly time,is to pay a visit to one of Pilkington’sglassworks at St Helens and to what was thePilkington Glass Museum now called theWorld of Glass. In planning this trip we havetried to make it accessible to as many aspossible and we are pleased that our firstinquiries have shown interest from a group
of over 90 people, this is a lot of people tocater for, recent Jollys averaging about halfof this number. However, we intend to tryand maintain this inclusivity for the Liverywithout loss to the ambience of the trip. Wewill be writing shortly to all our memberswith further details and inviting acommitment to the trip.
A couple of weeks ago I attended, withmany others, the new Lord Mayor’sbriefing when he told us of his plans for theyear, these consisted of his support for theinterests of the City mainly the financial
sector. However, he introduced his adoptedCharity called Pitch Perfect; this Charitysupports an initiative to provide a dynamicmusical and cricketing experience toyoung people in their schools andcommunities in London’s most challengingboroughs. Whilst I do not anticipate usturning out a cricket team, I am keen todevelop our relationship with theGuildhall School of Music, where wealready award the second prize for theirannual music competition.
In 2010 we will be continuing to pressforward with our Glass in Society projectsthrough our Charity Fund where we bothsupport financially and with expertise,projects in schools connected with the useof glass, the most successful of whichcontinues on the Isle of Wight under theguidance of Liveryman Tony Thatcher. Aspart of this initiative we will continue todevelop contacts with industry whereglass, in all its forms, is part of themanufacturing process.
In conclusion, I would like to thankyou all for attending the dinner thisevening, to give thanks to our HonoraryClerk and her team for organising theDinner, Mark Rowe the caterer and hisstaff and Past Master Martin Everett forselecting the wines.
The Mistress and I wish you all a veryHappy Christmas and a Prosperous NewYear and also a safe journey home.
Finally, will you all rise and raise yourglasses to give a toast to that marvellousmaterial whose name we bear “To Glass.”
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The Master presents to the livery a glass bowlbearing the coat of arms
William Knocker is admitted to The Court
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Principal Officers of the Company
Richard Lawman Master
The new Master, Richard Lawmanjoined the Glass Sellers in 1987, when hewas introduced, along with EdwardSainty, by Philip Willoughby during hisyear as Master.
Richard was educated at DauntseysSchool in Wiltshire and on leaving in1954, took articles with a firm ofConsulting Civil Engineers, R T Jamesand Partners, in Victoria. He studied CivilEngineering on a day release basis at whatis now City University.
Richard became a Chartered CivilEngineer in 1964 and a CharteredStructural Engineer in 1971. Hecontinued to work for the firm until 1992at which time he was a Senior Partner, hehad spent much time during this periodworking on the shipyard in Barrow inFurness and at Derby with Rolls Royce,latterly being involved with the design ofengine test beds.
In 1992 he left R T James and Partnersto form his own practice AlexanderAssociates, he continues to run the firmwith the help of his son Matthew and theyhave offices in Rickmansworth, Salisburyand Oxfordshire, Richard is especiallyinterested in work with old buildings andthe environment and enjoys legal work asan expert witness.
Richard married Tricia in 1964 andthey have three children, two of whom aremarried, and they enjoy time with theirtwo grand children and two step-grandchildren. They enjoy golf, bridge anddrinking fine wine, spending time inCornwall, rugby as a spectator and drivingsporty cars!
Martin ScarthPrime Warden
Martin Scarth joined the Livery inJanuary 1990 and was installed as PrimeWarden at the Court Meeting onDecember 10th 2009.
He attended a Grammar Technicalschool and was sponsored by a Kier PLCsubsidiary on a degree course. During 40years with the firm he was closelyinvolved in the company’s buy out in1992 and floatation on the London Stockmarket in 1996. Martin retired in 2003 butcontinues to take an active interest inconstruction and property. He is active invarious Charitable Trusts namely TheConstruction Youth Trust, Charles SFrench C.T.and St. Aubyn’s School Trust.Currently he is involved in setting up aYouth Project in Loughton. He is asuccessful Fireball dinghy sailor reachingthe top ten at National and Worldcompetition levels. Other sportinginterests include skiing. He was marriedto Elisabeth in 1969 they have threechildren and three grandchildren. Martinlooks to encourage the Glass Sellers’connections with young people anddeveloping our relationships with glassindustries and industries using glass.
Vivian BendallRenter Warden
Vivian Bendall joined the Livery in June1995 and was installed as Renter Warden atthe Court Meeting on 10th December 2009.
He is a Chartered Surveyor and soleprincipal of Bendall Chartered Surveyors,of Croydon, which has been a familypractice since it was established in 1924.In the 1960’s and 70’s he was a CroydonCouncillor holding chairmanship ofvarious committees and he was a memberof the Greater London Council in theearly 1970’s being vice Chairman of theNorth East Area Planning Board. In thetwo general elections of 1974 heunsuccessfully fought the parliamentaryconstituency of Hertford and Stevenage.In 1975 he was elected as ParliamentaryCandidate for Ilford North which he wonin by-election in 1978. He held theParliamentary seat for 19 years until 1997.His interests are cricket and motor racing.His grandfather was a former Past Masterof the Fruiterers. He was formerChairman of the Livery Committee and, atpresent, Chairman of the Finance andGeneral Purposes Committee of theCompany. His partner is Angela who isalso a Liveryman of the Company.
The Master and Court have asked me tolook at how we might further increase
the numbers of new Glass Sellers and aspart of this I will be talking to Liverymenwho have joined us in recent years.
Perhaps you have thoughts about howwe might extend our appeal to others. You
might also have thoughts on how we mightimprove the way we look after newmembers when they join the Company.
If you have ideas in these areas pleaseget in touch.Bill Cook, Past Master. Tel: 0208 940 2042,[email protected]
Recruitment of New Liverymen
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Our New Coat of ArmsThe Coat ofArms of theWorshipful Company
of Glass Sellers & Looking GlassMakers
Colours: Azure blue was the original colouradopted by the Glass Sellers in 1664. In theSecond World War only blue and maroonribbon was available. These colours areretained in the coat of arms.
Shield: This bearsthree items that
have been onthe shieldsince the 17thCentury. The
jug representsceramics, a
Venetian glassdenotes
containers andglass engravingand the lookingglass recalls our
lesser knownassociationwith thattrade.
Supporters: Two ravensflank the shield. Theyrepresent theCompany’shistoricconnectionwith GeorgeRavenscroftthe 17thCenturyoriginator of leadcrystal glass. Theravens also refer toflight and the useof glass inaircraftmanufacture.The ravens reston the sun andthe globe.
The Sun:Reflects theCompany’spursuit ofenlightenmentthrough glassindustry research and education.
The Globe:Symbolises the
global markets forall glass productsand global
communicationsfacilitated by optical
glass fibre undersea cables. Theoceans associate the Company withboatbuilding and links with HMsubmarines.
Crest: Flames rise out of a furnace representing theheat that makes glass malleable. The flames also referto the crest of Sir Robert Mansell a pioneer
industrialist who was granted a patent for makingglass objects in 1623.
Motto: “Discordia Frangimur”(Discord Weakens) appears on ascroll flanking a row of glass beadsrepresenting glass artistry.
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Our Court and Livery Dinner atStationers’ Hall on September 23rd
2009 was a very special occasion. After 345 years, during which the
Company identified itself with a coat ofarms that did not in fact enjoy theauthority of The College of Arms, theGlass Sellers attained new heights oflegitimacy with the presentation of a newand official coat of arms.
For many months a team of liverymenunder the direction of Past Master JohnHitch worked with the College to definethe symbols to be incorporated into thenew design. It was their intention thatthe new design should reflect the historyand traditions of the Company and alsothe indispensable role of glass in themodern world.
The presentation of the new heraldicdevice was a wonderfully traditionaloccasion with the Grant of Arms beingpresented to the Master by Windsor Herald.
Past Master Hitch made a short speechthanking the team that worked on thedesign on behalf of the Company.
Golden sand isn’t golden – it’s rusty
When sand, which contains even theslightest amount of rust (iron oxide)
is used to make glass, the glass is tintedgreen. You can see this colour by lookingat the edge of a glass shelf; imagine howdark it would be if the shelf were akilometre long.
In the 1960’s, Charles Kuen Kaostarted investigating the possibility ofshining a light beam down a glass fibre.As a copper wire can carry electricalsignals, so a light beam could carrymany, many more signals down anoptical fibre – if only the glass wasn’ttinted green. At that time, because of theiron in the glass, a mere 1% of the lightremained at the end of a 20 metre glass
fibre; not entirely satisfactory forworldwide communications.
In the 1970’s, fused silica fibres weredeveloped which did not use sand as thestarting material but very pure chemicals.These fibres contained no iron and weretherefore incredibly transparent. 95% ofthe light remained after travelling through1 kilometre of fibre, thus enabling fibreoptic communications to work.
Professor Kao was rewarded in 2009with a shared Nobel Prize in Physics – andthe satisfaction of knowing that there isnow enough optical fibre in use to wrapround the globe more than 25,000 times.
As the Beadle’s stentorian announce-ments always mention, the Glass
Sellers Company also includes looking-glass makers. The mirror is perhaps oneof the most commonly used forms ofglass, so much so that we give mirrorsvery little thought.
Mirrors appear fre-quently in literature, inspace exploration, indentistry and medicine,photography, interiordesign, as our mostcrucial rearward look-out when driving, andthat’s before we getanywhere near topeering at ourselves
in the dozens of mirrors found in theaverage household.
Where did it all begin? Ancient Greeksand Romans used mirrors but they weresimple disks of highly polished metal sothe image must have been somewhatdistorted. Nevertheless surviving statuesof antiquity suggest that the ancient’sshaved their faces, so their mirror imagesmust have been good enough forperforming that perilous task.
The Venetians managed to produce theforerunners of today’s mirrors by backinga plate of flat glass with a thin sheet ofmetal – an amalgam of tin and mercury.From the 16th to the 19th Centuries thatwas about as good as it got.
Very high quality images could beproduced by this method but the mirrorswere much sought after and extremelyexpensive. The Doges did their best tokeep the secret ofquality mirror makingwithin the Venetianguilds, but event-ually mirror makerssuccumbed to thetemptation to carry thesecret of their craft toLondon and Paris.And here in London,in the 17th Century, our own WorshipfulCompany became the regulatory bodyand guardian of quality mirror makingin England.
In the 19th and 20th Centuries glassmirrors began to play a role incommunications, foreshadowing the
PresentationDinner
From RustySand to a
Nobel Prize
...AndLooking
Glass Makers
A Yeomen Warder of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace andFortress the Tower of London escorted WindsorHerald to the presentation
Windsor Herald of the College of Arms presents theLetters Patent to the Master
Mirrors in 19thCentury militarysignalling
An early heliograph
Past Master John Hitch tells the story of our new emblem
Flashback to 1960s: Charles Kao doing an earlyexperiment on optical fibre at the StandardTelecommunications Laboratory at Harlow town,Britain.Photograph reproduced by courtesy of the ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong.
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In October, in the splendid surroundingsof the Egyptian Room at the Mansion
House, over 250 members of the Courtand Livery and their guests sat down todine to music played by musicians fromthe Band of the Royal Yeomanry.
Continuing a recent innovation animpressive Guard of Honour wasprovided by the Army Cadet Force. TheMaster having proposed the toast to TheRoyal Family, Colonel Mark Bryant,Cadet Commandant City of London andNorth East Sector Cadet Force acceptedThe Glass Sellers’ Trophy for presentationeach year to the ‘Chosen Man’ of theRifles. The Master’s principal guest, theeminent lawyer Sir John Chadwickproposed the traditional toast to The Glass
The Mansion House BanquetHighspot of the Company’s year
The magnificent Letters Patent displayed in theReception Rooms
The Master, Robin Arculus
Left: The glittering scene in the Egyptian Hall
The members of the Cadet Force Guard of Honour
A trumpeter plays the Post Horn Gallup in the gallery
Sellers’ Company. Sir John is LieutenantBailiff of the Royal Court of Guernsey,and also sits as a Judge of the DubaiInternational Financial Centre Court, andas President of the Court of Appeal of TheCayman Islands.
In a full musical programme the bandplayed pieces by Dvorak, Gershwin,Joplin, Sousa and Satie. The by nowtraditional finale was Keonig’s PostHorn Gallup played from the galleryand much appreciated by the dinersbelow. As ever the Company isindebted to The Lord Mayor forpermitting the Company to dine at hisresidence and to Alderman Sir RobertFinch for representing him at our mostprestigious annual event.
global use of glass fibres today fortelecommunications. The Heliographwas a signalling device that reflectedthe rays of the sun towards a target.Either by tilting the mirror, or openingand closing a shutter, a coded messagecould be flashed to the recipient. It washighly portable, required no energy
source and relatively secure, sinceanyone not on the axis of operationwould be unaware of the signal. Widelyused by the US Signal Corps and by theBritish Army in the Boer War it waspossible to see signals 30 miles awaywith the naked eye. Amazingly, in 1894the US Army established a record by
sending a heliograph message betweenstations in Utah and Colorado for adistance of 183 miles.
Of course for all our technical andscientific uses of the mirror, thecommonest use of mirrors is simply togaze at ourselves.
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Fibreglass in Light Aviation ImmediatePast Master
Robin ArculusLooks Back
After the Second World War fibreglassbecame the material of choice for
virtually all the world’s glidermanufacturers.
More recently fibreglass constructiontechnology has also driven the design ofnumerous microlight aircraft. (Wheremicrolights were once rather dauntingkite-like machines with open cockpits andpusher propellers, they now haverecognisably conventional airframes,closed cockpits and engines in the nose.)The fibreglass used to build these aircraftis made in exactly the same way as anyother glass – from sand, soda and lime.The glass is formed into marbles whichcan be inspected for impurities. Themarbles are then melted and the liquifiedglass runs through tiny holes at the bottomof the furnace where it is caught by aspinning drum that winds the strands ontoa bobbin while pulling them into evenfiner fibres. One half-inch marble canyield up to 95 miles of fibreglass. Thefinished fibre is then woven into a fabric.
The principal parts of a modern lightaircraft are made in moulds. Each mouldmakes half of one component such as awing, a fuselage or a tailplane. First, themould is coated with a release agent. Thenthe fibreglass is laid up layer by layer inthe mould, each layer being impregnatedwith epoxy resin. The woven fibres areplaced in very precise alignment so thatthe weave in each layer is at 45º to thepreceding layer. This gives the structureimmense strength in compression,stretching and twisting. When thefibreglass construction has cured it isremoved from the mould, sanded toprecisely the required profileand then given a top surfacegel coat. The two halves of thecomponent are then joined tocomplete the process.
A Frenchman, M. Dubus-Bonnel,patented the first modern technique formaking fibreglass in 1836 but it was inGermany in the First World War thatfibreglass was first made on an industrialscale, because Germany faced a shortageof asbestos for insulation and fibreglassmade an excellent substitute. In theinterwar years in the United States, theOwens Illinois Glass Company andCorning Glass further developed thetechnology and by 1944 the US Navy wassetting sail in the world’s first fibreglassreinforced plastic hull. In 1953 GeneralMotors launched the first ever all fibreglasscar, the iconic Chevrolet Corvette.
Every Master leaves office with a tingeof sadness, coupled also with a sense
of relief that his diary can return to normal.When the telephone rings, it is no longeralmost certainly for him and in any case itrings much less frequently. E-mails revertto being fewer and further between andprincipally of the junk variety, and eventhe snail mail becomes smaller and easierto handle. The converse is obviously thecase during his Year, but it is only whenthe Year ends that he realizes how busyand frantic he has been. In saying this, Ihave to pay tribute to two people withoutwhom the Year could not have runsmoothly: first, I am indebted to ourHonorary Clerk, Audrey Smith, who keptmy diary organized at all times; secondly,my thanks go to the Mistress, Caroline,who accompanied me often and who keptmy clothes immaculate and prepared forevery occasion.
The last editionof The Glass Sellerreported on the firsthalf of my Year. It described myinvolvement withschools benefitingfrom the largesse ofour Charity Fund; itcovered extensivelythe Jolly to Saumur and reported on theimportant Masters’ weekend at Ironbridge;and it recorded my attendance on behalf ofthe Company at a variety of churchservices and other functions. Many of theseevents were in active support of the LordMayor and the objectives of his own yearin office.
The second half of the year started withthe first contested shrieval election for adecade, in which David Wootton andPeter Cook defeated Tim Oliver tobecome the two Sheriffs for 2009/10.
I was honoured to assist SheriffWootton receive his Chain of Office at areception that allowed me to meet manyfellow Masters, and others prominent inthe City, in a more relaxed manner than isusual at formal dinners. We were laterpleased to entertain Sheriff Cook at ourMansion House Banquet in October.
August is always a quiet month in theLivery but it did see the annual camp of
However US pre-eminence in the use offibreglass for boats and cars did not extendto aviation. Before the war, Germany hadbeen prohibited from building poweredaircraft, so German aero-engineers andpilots put all their energies into exploringflight in gliders. This gave them aconsiderable lead in understanding theperformance of aircraft wings. Even todaymany German technical colleges have‘Akafliegs’ – flight studies whereprototype gliders are designed and tested.By 1945 the American aviation industryhad made massive strides in themanufacture of lightweight aluminiumalloys, and with the war over, US lightaircraft and glider manufacturers turned tothese metal construction materials.Meanwhile Germany was taking adifferent approach. Several manufacturerssuch as Alexander Schliecher andShempp-Hirth brought together theiradvanced designs and fibreglasstechnology to create aircraft with world-beating performance. Their aircraftquickly outclassed their American rivals,an ascendency that lasts to the present day.Sadly, British glider manufacturersbecame stuck in pre-war manufacturingtechniques and by the 1960s were fadingfrom the scene.
In the 21stcentury we havealready seen the
appearance of compositeconstruction materials such
as Glass Reinforced Plastic in innovativeairliner designs such as the A380 and theBoeing Dreamliner. Offering all the by-now long established advantages ofincredible strength to weight ratios,precise aerofoil sections and smooth low-drag surfaces, these materials are usheringin a new era of low weight, economicaland environmentally efficient aircraft. Soas you sit back to enjoy that holiday flightyou will be surrounded by hundreds offibre glass components and if someoneinvites you for a flight in a light aircraft ora glider you can be almost certain that ourwondrous material – glass – is actuallykeeping you airborne. u
Acknowledgements: The Glass Seller would like to thank The Master and Immediate Past MasterArculus for their contributions to this issue, and Liverymen John Savage. Our thanks also go to The HonoraryClerk whose support behind the scenes makes the production and distribution of the Newsletter possible.Newsletter design and artwork by Andrew Jones. Livery events photography by Gerald Sharp Photography.Printed by Crossprint on the Isle of Wight.
bNew Liiverymen
2009Mr J E G Arculus
Mr C W Dellow
Mr D G Perkins
Mr R H Pike
Mr R D C R Pollock-Hill
His Honour Judge P G Shorrock
Mr P A Wenham
the ACF at Folkestone, at which yourMaster presented the Glass Sellers’Trophyto “The Chosen Man”, one AmirBoudaladji, being the prize-winning cadet.We were pleased to see the cadets in actiondoing fieldcraft, first aid, and weaponry,culminating in drill and a tug of war. Thecadets again provided a Guard of Honourat our Banquet, also attended by theirCommandant, Colonel Mark Bryant, whowe are delighted has recently been made aGreater London Deputy Lieutenant.
A very early start was needed to makebreakfast at 7am before the HackneyCarriage Drivers set off on the MagicalTaxi Tour to EuroDisney. It washeartening to see the excitement writtenon the faces of children, most of whomsadly were terminally ill. The generosityof our Charity Fund enabled us to fund ataxi in full with consequent beneficialexposure of our Company name and logoon the taxi door.
The annual cross planting in the Gardenof Remembrance at St Paul’s took place inearly November. It was a simple butinspiring ceremony in the presence of theLord Mayor and Bishop of London. It wasalso memorable for your Master’s bowlerhat drill as trained by the Colonel Clerk!The second civic event in November wasthe Lord Mayor’s Show – as usual amagnificent parade – but marred by theweather being the wettest possible. As athank you to Livery Masters, their spousesand other City dignitaries, the LadyMayoress gave a sparkling Champagnereception in the Mansion House beforethe hand over to the new Lord Mayor,Nick Anstee, and his Lady Mayoress. Itwould not be right to let this moment passwithout recording that Ian and Lin Luderhave been outstanding as Lord Mayor andLady Mayoress both in representing theCity and in their relationship with theLivery Companies. It was a pity that theywere unable to attend our Banquet due toa State occasion at Windsor Castle, but wewere honoured instead by the attendanceof Alderman Sir Robert Finch asRepresentative Lord Mayor.
One sad event took place in November,when several of us attended the funeral inGuildford of Liveryman George Arber.George was 88 years old, had been aliveryman for over 43 years and had four
children, seven grandchildren and elevengreat grandchildren. Apart from theLivery, George had been in the Fleet AirArm in World War II and had been anactive Freemason, all of which led to acongregation at Guildford in excess oftwo hundred. It was quite some record.
During the Year, I was unfortunatelyunable to hold my planned Charityfunction. I therefore made a direct Appealby letter for funds to assist the financingof Counselling Skills Workshops atSt Luke’s Church, Canning Town. ThisAppeal raised the excellent total, beforeGift Aid, of £6,695 donated by sixty-fivemembers of the livery.
In conclusion to what has been a trulymemorable Year, the great event whichcannot be repeated and which was veryspecial to me was the presentation beforethe September Court Dinner of our Coatof Arms. In the presence of Sir CliveMartin, former Lord Mayor, WilliamHunt, Windsor Herald dressed in his fulluniform, and the Raven Master from theTower of London, our own Past MasterJohn Hitch gave a technologicallydazzling exposition of all the differentelements of the Coat of Arms. We all owea debt of gratitude to past Master John andhis Consultative Group for a job welldone. In commemoration of this uniqueevent, your Master presented to the Liveryat the Installation Dinner in December alarge glass bowl, carrying the Coat ofArms and beautifully cut and engraved byLiveryman Barbara Beadman’s Company,Tudor Glass, at Stourbridge.
