A letter from the Deputy Editor

As I write this, we say goodbye to the Clerk of the company and hello to his replacement. Once again, we will have someone with a military background this time from the British Army.

Our thanks must go to the Clerk Commander Mark Leaning RN who retires this month.

As a new member of this fraternity, Mark helped me understand the role of the Company and how it works. I have had the opportunity to spend time with him both in his role as Clerk and COO managing the business of the company, but also socially on several occasions and both have been a pleasure.

Mark is married to Rachel, herself a retired Royal Navy Air Traffic Controller who is also stepping down as Assistant Clerk to the Coachmakers’ Company after eight years in the role.

Mark’s interests include most forms of motor sport but particularly motorcycle racing, horse riding with occasional participation in equestrian dressage competition and motorcycle track days. He also helps keep Rachel’s 1960 MGA coupe running.

I’m hoping that they will both be able to spend more time on these interests, but I am aware and not surprised that Mark is pursuing a new business. I am pleased to say one that will keep it close to this Livery Company and the City itself.

I would like to thank him for all the help he has given me, but I know that all of you share the same sentiment and wish them both well in their endeavours.

Our new Clerk is Lieutenant Colonel Craig Hallatt who is the 29th Clerk to the Coachmakers’ Company. He has completed 39 years’ service and is retiring from his current position as Principal Director of Music (Army) and we look forward to welcoming him.

There are several interesting stories this month and it is always gratifying to hear from one of the young people that we have helped, particularly when that young person posted on social media how it benefited her. Katherine Keogh talks about how our involvement not only relieved the stress of studying but also provided a network of mentors.

In “A road more or less travelled” Renter Warden, David Barrett talks about his visit to Sweden, Denmark and Finland at the beginning of July although it appears that this may now be a distant memory, as he seems to have run into lots of jobs since he returned home including urgent decorating.

David also gives an insight into the election of Sheriffs at Common Hall on 24th June.

]The Master talks about the most emotive and exciting event this month for her which was a visit by the Leathery Group of Liveries to Capel Manor College near Enfield for its annual Leather Faculty Awards Day.

The British Driving Society Annual Show was held at Windsor Great Park on Sunday 2nd June. The Coachmakers’ coaching award for 2024 was presented by the Master to John Peacock, who has been working with carriage horses since 1967, an illustrious career spanning five decades.

This is one event that I would have liked to attend but was unable to due to pressure of work.

However, I was reminded of the event when I picked up a book while in an antique shop a few days later entitled London Cameos by Harold Kelly and published in 1951. In it I found a cameo entitled Horse and Man and the opening and closing paragraphs I thought would be of particular interest to you all:

Horse and Man:

“He looks upon the City from the hood of his van as a gargoyle might peer from his niche in an old carved arch. Age has distorted the contours of his face and years of weather have pitted his skin as if by erosion.

He drives his phlegmatic old horse through the city, stopping here and there to deliver a parcel, they crowd about him, approaching and receding like memories about a mind that is too old to dream of the future and too worn to perceive the present.
Yet he is not a misanthrope. He has not associated human beings with the trend of his mechanical chronology. He can still smile and wag a stumpy finger at them, and if the smile is more a grimace than anything else, his eyes rob it of any malevolence. After all, there are more motors than humans in the city – or at least there seem to be.”

That was from 1951!

Saying goodbye to those who have not only carried out their duties but have also become friends is always hard. Sometimes it can also be hard to say goodbye to objects that have played a part in one’s lives.

It was so for me on 23rd July when I said goodbye to the Aston Martin Bulldog for which I had looked after the PR, marketing and logistics as it attended events and activities in the UK and Europe.

After 7,000 hours of restoration, reaching its 200mph speed goal, and 1,664 days at Classic Motor Cars Ltd (CMC) in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, the Aston Martin Bulldog is returning to its owner in the US and taking part in the Pebble Beach Concours. More about that in the next edition of Coachlines.

I hope that you are having a great summer and that if you have not yet been on holiday that you have something planned.

Freeman David Barzilay
Deputy Editor