Recognising and Promoting Excellence
Awards given by the Company
In 1865 the Company began to give prizes for the encouragement of good design and workmanship in the construction of vehicles. The encouragement of technical education and the improvement of design are objectives which the Company has consistently supported financially.
The subjects, for which prizes were awarded, reflect the changes in fashion and habits of the day. In 1884 there was a prize for ‘a lady’s driving phaeton, ascent between the wheels, any shape (except Stanhope or mail) being eligible, except that the hood to be shown down’. Thirteen years later the Company offered a prize (but made no award) for designs for a ‘self-propelled light motor carriage’. In 1904 a design was invited for ‘a motor car to carry four people in the hind part and one or two in the driver’s seat, suitable for a petrol engine. The hind part to be convertible from an open to a closed carriage.’
When the horse-drawn carriage was superseded by the motorcar at the turn of the century, the number of coachmakers who changed with the times was not large, and their number diminished even more when handmade motor coachwork gave way to the all-steel pressed body of the mass-produced car. Fortunately the growing number of motor manufacturers were recognised by the Coachmakers Company, a City Livery with which they could naturally be identified. They were soon joined by the makers of the ‘coaches of the air’ and these two industries – motor and aircraft – became the modern equivalents of the coachmakers and coach harness makers of old.
The Driving Award
After the war there was a revival of interest in carriage driving when a historical pageant of horse-drawn carriages at the Royal Agricultural Society’s show at Windsor Great Park led to the formation of the British Driving Society. It took some years for the Company to respond to this movement, and in 1979 awards for outstanding contributions to the continued use of horse-drawn vehicles were presented for the first time at the annual show of the British Driving Society held at Smith’s Lawn in Windsor Great Park, by invitation of HM the Queen. The winners were the Harewood Carriage Company, one of several that have sprung up to restore old vehicles and construct replicas. Subsequently it was decided to present an annual Coachmakers’ Company award to the leading British entry in the National Driving Competition. To mark the Company’s renewed link with its original craft, Lt-Col. Sir John Miller, KCVO, DSO, MC, the Crown Equerry, who was responsible for the Royal Mews with its carriages of many kinds, horses, and motor cars, and is himself one of Britain’s leading whips, was made an Honorary Liveryman.
Meanwhile interest in the restoration and reproduction of coachwork on original motor car chassis was not neglected, and in 1979 Coachmakers’ Company class awards and a supreme award were presented for the first time at a Coachmakers’ Weekend at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum.
The Livery Committee
In 1964 the Livery Committee considered various activities which would improve communications between the Court and the Livery, and this deliberation culminated in the establishment of the Livery Committee in 1970 charged with “advancing new ideas which might be forthcoming from members which would be of benefit to the Livery as a whole.”
The Award to Industry
The first action of the Livery Committee was to organise a ‘working’ dinner of liverymen at the Saville Club, where the idea of the Coachmakers’ Awards to Industry emerged. There are two awards annually, one for aerospace and one for the automotive industry, “for outstanding contributions to technological advancement in transport also involving elegance and commercial significance”. If there were no achievements in any one year deemed worthy, then no award would be given.
The Awards to Industry were made for the first time in 1972, each consisting of a silver sculpture by Leo de Vroomen to be held for the year, and a medal to be kept by the recipient in perpetuity. In turn, award winners have traditionally and graciously given table pieces to the Company which are displayed at Court and Livery dinners.
The Eric Beverley Award
In 1979 earlier grants and covenant with the Cranfield College of Aeronautics were replaced by a bursary to enable British students at the Cranfield Institute of Technology to obtain experience with overseas companies. The bursary was largely the brainchild of Eric Beverley, who was Master in 1978, and when he died two years later the new bursary benefited considerably from the Eric Beverley Memorial Fund launched in his memory by the then Master J A Williams.
The Motor Centenary Award
In his year of office in 1985, Master Richard Dallimore launched an appeal to establish a motor car centenary fund to provide an annual bursary for achievement in motor car design. It is open to automotive design students in colleges and polytechnics and young practising designers in the motor industry.
In 1977 the Company celebrated its tercentenary with a banquet at Guildhall and a full programme of special events throughout the year. These included participation in the Historic Vehicle Silver Jubilee Tribute at Windsor and Ascot, where the Company had an exhibition in a marquee shared with Jack Barclay, publication of the revised Company history, ‘The Coachmakers’; renovation of the Company’s Brougham; and the receipt of various gifts including a silver model of a Corniche by Rolls-Royce Motors to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. During the year arrangements were concluded with the Tallow Chandlers for the building of safe storage in their cellars for the Company’s silver, gowns and archives.