Coachlines - May 2024

31.05.24 Assistant Clerk Lt Cdr Rachel Firth

An event of many moving parts – The Coachmakers’ Banquet 2024

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Pictured above: Bristol Scout 1264 on display in the Great Hall

They say that it is difficult to live with a creative genius. I’ve never had to face that challenge, but the Clerk does have his moments, writes the Assistant Clerk. In fact, sometimes it’s like trying to keep up with an excited terrier who can’t decide whether to do this or that, or something else, and finally decides to do everything all at the same time. And so is his approach to the annual Banquet preparations. However, there is a lot more administration that goes on behind the scenes in order to deliver his flights of fancy.

The Annual Coachmakers’ Banquet 2024 was held on 17th May at the Guildhall. If you weren’t there you missed a most spectacular event. As we have often been told, the annual Coachmaker Banquet is a significantly better than other Guildhall banquets – and this year was no exception.

Planning

Planning started in November 2022 when the then Senior Warden suggested that she would like to do more with Navy Wings after a young man working with Navy Wings at RNAS Yeovilton called Patryk Nelkowski had just been presented with the Eric Winkle Brown Award. From this sprang an idea. Contact was made with Navy Wings who jumped at the opportunity to work with us to showcase the Coachmakers’ Awards and the work it does at Yeovilton maintaining and flying historic naval aircraft. From this the plan to display a flying replica of a 1914 Bristol Scout biplane within the Great Hall was made and suitable contacts formed.

Conscious that we wanted the feel to be different from previous years, the idea to completely re-model the Great Hall layout was formed over a pint in our local; the aircraft was thus placed at the far end of the Great Hall and a central stage adopted for the speeches and entertainment. In this way, we hoped that those attending would feel more involved with the action. With this basic layout in mind, a site visit was arranged at the Guildhall to talk the idea through with the Guildhall Liaison Officer, Navy Wings Representative, the Clerk and myself in October 2023.

As the plan developed over many more pints in the Crown in Glentham, so the site visit was repeated in March 2024 with the inclusion of the Guildhall Health and Safety Officer, sound and lighting personnel, the aircraft owner and his engineer, the Master and Consort and our singer on the night. Exact measurements were taken to ensure the aircraft would fit through the only suitable entrance into the Great Hall, the Dance Hall Porch, and a Plans A and B were devised. The initial positioning of the aircraft within the Great Hall was revised; this presented its own problems around fire exit access, and we had to work closely with the Health and Safety Officer at the Guildhall to ensure adequate escape routes were maintained for the safety of guests.

In the background Navy Wings was liaising with our star turn, Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, better known to you as the actor Robert Lindsay. Scripts were being written and then edited to fit into the Clerk’s exacting timetable. A Flight Deck Walk consisting of a series of vignette interviews was also devised, and agreement from prospective interviewees obtained. Likewise, a VIP guest list was beginning to emerge and we were fortunate enough to have early acceptances from the First Sea Lord and the Lord Mayor, a coup on both fronts.

In the Coachmakers’ office, bookings were starting to come in and were recorded. The Clerk was working hard to generate sponsorship which would help pay for all the additional touches that make the Coachmakers’ Banquet a cut above the rest: this included a sophisticated sound and light system and the hire and transport of the aircraft (we aren’t always lucky enough to get a display item free of charge), the London Banqueting Ensemble to provide incidental musical entertainment, and the Souvenir Booklet.

Talking of the latter, Honorary Assistant Lesley Upham once again edited a fantastic publication that told you all about the aircraft, the Coachmaker/Affiliated Service Unit prize winners, our entertainment and principal guests. It also highlighted the valuable work of Navy Wings, linked that to the work of the Coachmakers’ Company to support young people learning the relevant heritage skills, and it included details of our wonderful Sea and Air Cadet Units and of course adverts from the companies that so generously supported this year’s Banquet.

We are so thankful to Lesley and the generosity of our sponsors: Liveryman Tony Westley and Aerotron, Lockheed Martin via Freeman Paul Livingstone and Ongar Motors through the Master, Bettine Evans. We are also grateful for the personal donations made by the following Coachmakers: Immediate Past Master Julian Leach, Past Master Graham Cole, Senior Warden Steve Fitz-Gerald and Liveryman Christopher Walkinshaw.

The amount of information that was passing through the Clerk’s office during the build-up was immense. Menu cards were devised, proofed, re-proofed and printed. The same applied to the invitation cards and the previously mentioned Souvenir Booklet. Another trip to the pub enabled work to be done to devise and arrange suitable prizes for the Prize Draw and again we are so grateful to Navy Wings and the Master for providing the first three prizes, each of which were worthy of being in the top slot but that accolade went to a 45-minute flight in a Harvard flying from RNAS Yeovilton.

Preparation

I managed to write and distribute the majority of the invitation packs by the end of April. Each pack consisted of an invitation card, instructions to guests to smooth their arrival and entry into the Guildhall, and guidance on dress code; an ‘Admit’ card was also included which is produced internally and aids swift entry to the Guildhall and, for security purposes, helps us keep track of who is actually in the building once the event starts. Details of the Prize Draw and accompanying Prize Draw entry envelope were also included to encourage guest participation. Thereafter it was a question of dealing with late bookings and changes.

Work on the seating plan commenced about 10 days before the event. Numbers have to be declared to the caterer a week before the event and dietary requirements submitted. With the numbers involved and the scale and layout of the seating plan in the Great Hall, it is more difficult to see individuals and move them around on my computer programme in the way I do for a “normal” livery dinner, therefore table groupings were devised on a spreadsheet. Each table could then be arranged individually. I delay printing the seating plan and guest chart to the last possible moment to allow for any late changes; likewise, the place cards, and as expected there were several late amendments required. These are all printed in the office and the seating plan folded by hand.

And at the same time – the Clerk and I continued doing everything else that needs to be done to keep the Coachmakers on the straight and narrow.

Delivery

The day of the event started early – very early. We completed all the chores at home necessary to ensure the welfare of our horses and were on the 0839 from Newark to London. Our personal kit, seating plans, place cards, the Coachmaker/Affiliated Service Unit prize winners’ certificates and everything else we brought from the office was dropped off at the Guildhall before proceeding to Tallow Chandlers to collect gowns and chattels, the menu cards and souvenir booklets which had been delivered there by Merry Printers; oh yes and the John Pearl 100 Club tombola drum for the Prize Draw, which weighs 30kg and is not the easiest thing to lug around London. With all this “gently placed” into the back of a black cab we were off back to the Guildhall in time to help manoeuvre the Bristol Scout into the Great Hall at 1300 hrs.

Just to complicate things further on the day, the Clerk had another bright idea which the Court had enthusiastically endorsed, which required the organisation of a VIP Freedom of the City of London for Robert Lindsay, followed by a Quorum Court Meeting to install Mr Lindsay as an Honorary Liveryman of the Company. The Clerk to the Chamberlain’s Court was extremely helpful in making this work. Meanwhile, in the Great Hall, and with the help of some of the Navy Wings’ team, I was left to put out individual copies of the Souvenir Booklet and menu card and lay out the place cards.

A check-in desk was set up and seating plans laid out for guests on arrival, as was the box for Prize Draw entry envelopes. I also ensured everything was ready for the prize draw and presentation of awards later in the evening, supervising the layout of the staging and generally guiding and troubleshooting the many moving parts as they fell into place. I even managed to get into my glad rags in good time!

Booted and spurred, I then briefed the Sea and Air Cadets, and Hugo Cowley and his girlfriend Katie who had also volunteered to help us during the evening, on how I wanted them to help ease the passage of guests into the event.

While all of this was happening, the Cook and the Butler team were finalising the set- up of the tables. The sound and light team from Light Motif was finalising the set-up of their equipment and conducting sound checks for Robert Earl Clarke and Maria Savova, our singer and pianist, Mr Lindsay and his co-performer, Admiral Sir George Zambellas, and the Master. The London Banqueting Ensemble were setting up their own equipment and the Guildhall staff were finalising their own preparations to oversee the safety and security of almost 300 guests. And with the Quorum Court concluded, the Clerk returned to help finalise the preparations.

As 1745 hrs approached, an eye was kept out for the arrival of our principal guests to ensure they were met and escorted appropriately to the VIP reception area to be welcomed by the Master. And as the guests began to arrive, everything that had been listed in the Clerk’s meticulous and detailed plan began to unfold.

With so many moving parts and a lot to fit in, timings were tight, so after the call to dinner guests were encouraged to move into the Great Hall and take their seats as quickly as possible. The top table guests were led to their table by the Toastmaster, and the Sheriff accompanying the Lord Mayor on the night was met and escorted to her seat away from the Top Table; this ensured that she didn’t get lost in the sea of tables where the guests were already standing by their places. However, with everyone in their correct positions we could breathe at last and allow the Toastmaster to take charge of the overall running of the event, a task that Mr John Cash MBE did so brilliantly. Of course there was a myriad of underlying detail that the Clerk and I still had to manage throughout the evening but that is too much to list here.

Considering the complexity of the evening and the variety of entertainment involved, the event concluded only six minutes later than planned and that was only because the Clerk had forgotten to brief our singer that if it was likely to over-run, his encore would not happen; but perhaps that was not so bad because Rodney Earl Clarke is a fine singer and everyone enjoyed his performance.

The aftermath

On completion of the evening the Clerk and I gathered up many of the discarded Souvenir Booklets knowing that we would have a number of requests for duplicates after the event; we also gathered up the Company’s belongings, the majority of which were taken by the Toastmaster for safe storage at the Innholders’ Hall until the Clerk’s next visit to London. Then to bed for a few hours sleep before reporting to the Great Hall again bright and early at 0800 on the Saturday morning to help dismantle and safely remove the Bristol Scout.

The Great Hall was cleared of all Coachmaker presence by 0900 (as per the Clerk’s plan) and we were able to head to King’s Cross station for the return trip home, tired but reasonably confident that a good time was had by all. Judging by the feedback we have been receiving over the past few days that confidence was justified.

And what of next year’s banquet? You’ll have to wait and see.