A letter from the Editor November 2024

Dear readers,

Have you received our hot-off-the-press publications by post? One is our Company’s traditional yearbook: The Coachmaker – Our Livery Year, the other is a new booklet which the Court has entrusted the Communications Committee to create: a Members’ Handbook. We truly hope you enjoyed reading them as much as we enjoyed creating them. In fact, many of you are the original writers of some of the stories we first published in Coachlines. Thank you very much for your contributions and I shall count on your valued input in the months and years to come.

However, the person whom I wish to thank the most, besides our fabulous technical editor Ann Neilson from INL, is my Committee Secretary Liveryman Mark Jurd. His expertise does not only lie in the carriage driving sector, but also in publications. Mark is the sole artistic creator of the Members’ Handbook. Other than overseeing both projects, proofreading and signing them off, my contribution was minimum. I have thrown at Ann and Mark all sorts of fanciful ideas, asked them to move things around here and there. To my great relief, they managed to achieve by and large all of what I have come up with. We as a Company owe a huge gratitude to them both.

In The Coachmaker – Our Livery Year, we included our ‘Meet the Team’ features from 10 previous editions of Coachlines. It’s important for us to know who the people are in our Company who give their time for free, day in, day out to make things happen. Many people in various committees, just like Liveryman Mark Jurd, have taken on challenging tasks, and tirelessly worked behind the scenes.

If you were one of the lucky ones who attended the Aerospace Industry Dinner on 21st November at Ironmongers’ Hall, you would have also been moved by our talented young award winners who received their prizes, and felt proud as their young faces beamed with triumph. I wonder, on reflection, how many of us have thought about how we secure these award prizes, and how we have encouraged young talent to apply for them, not to mention how we run a credible, fair and sound awards judging process.

Assistant Eric Wallbank, Chair of the Charity Committee and his team; Steward Neil Sheath, Chair of the Aerospace Awards Sub-Committee and his team; Assistant Giles Taylor, Chair of the Automotive Awards Sub-Committee and his team; Renter Warden Mark Broadbent, Chair of the Coachmaking and Carriage Driving Awards Sub-Committee and his team; our Trustees who oversee the Charitable Trust and various members of the Court and other committees have collectively put in thousands of hours each year to ensure we consistently deliver our commitment to the young people we vow to support.

In this edition of Coachlines, you will find plenty of heartwarming stories not only about this year’s Aerospace Awards recipients, but also of some of our previous award winners. One of them is about the 2017 De Havilland Scholarship winner Angus Noakes, who has recently been named Young Historic Pilot of the Year. Another story is about a more recent award winner, Selma Grage, who has completed her Private Pilot’s Licence training with Cambridge Flying Group.

If I may, I shall borrow Assistant Eric Wallbank’s comments below to conclude my own private reflection on this important matter: “Reading the stories of these fabulous young people is a reminder, should we need one, of why we put our efforts into our charitable works, and why fundraising is so important so we can increase the number of young people whose lives we can affect”.

Talking of conclusions, I hope our Master won’t mind me disclosing an anecdote. While exercising my self-imposed Editor-in-Chief’s authority, I suggested he conclude his Master’s Message for November Coachlines with his ‘Four Fs’ (Fellowship, Friendship, Fundraising and Fun) as it is widely believed that important things should be repeated three times. Master smiled and obliged.

Talking of Fellowship and Friendship, I thought I’d highlight a Fun fact. I have not only included the specially commissioned article from our Livery photographer Phil McCarthy ‘A year through a lens’ in The Coachmaker – Our Livery Year, but also slipped in a photo of him on the back cover (he doesn’t know about it yet!). As a professional photographer, Phil always stays behind his lens, and for a number of years he has photographed us at our formal Livery events. Without his highly skilful work, we would have left many happy moments undocumented. Officially he is not a Coachmaker, but is definitely one of us. Since we are championing fellowship and friendship, I want to honour and acknowledge Phil’s outstanding contribution by bringing him to the front of the camera and on the back of The Coachmaker. If you happen to bump into Phil, please kindly refrain from telling him about this. Your Editor plans to personally hand this yearbook to Phil as a special Christmas stocking filler from the Company.

Last, but definitely not least, before I draw this letter to a close, I cannot help but point out that I have managed to avoid mentioning any of the three unavoidable topics: Weather, politics and sport (not even my favourite, golf) – what an achievement!

Since my Deputy Editor, Freeman David Barzilay, will be the one who writes the Editor’s Letter in December, please allow me to send you and your families seasonal greetings for a very happy Christmas. We shall meet again on the other side of the new year.

Au revoir mes chers amis et collègues!

Yours, Editor Lyn