Master’s message 20th April 2020

As I write this we are about to be told we will have to continue our ‘lockdown’ for another three weeks, which I personally think is absolutely the right thing to do, despite the social and financial impact it is having on individuals and the country as a whole. We are also being told that even after this, any relaxation of the rules on social isolation will not mean a return to ‘normality’ for many months, so I am increasingly fearful for our postponed Automotive Dinner on 1st July, the Summer Court and Dinner on 15th July and the Guildhall Banquet on 23rd July. Please keep them in your diaries for now, but we will continue to review the situation during the coming weeks.

The Master Richard Charlesworth MVO

As you can imagine, I am sad that all the lovely events Zoë and I were looking forward to enjoying in ‘my’ year have been cancelled since the beginning of March, and it may be that nothing will be able to take place before the end of the Livery year. Looking to the future, we continue to closely monitor the advice that the Government has issued, and the Clerk is continuing to engage with his fellow Clerks across the Livery community and the City as a whole to understand when and how a return to some sense of what we previously considered normal might be achieved.

To finish on a slightly more cheerful note, surely one of the high points of a very depressing time in our lives will be the extraordinary efforts of the delightful Captain Tom Moore, who today achieved his target of 100 laps of his garden, ahead of his 100th Birthday on 30th April. Having set out to raise £1,000 for NHS charities dealing with the coronavirus, at the last count he had raised circa £20 million! What an inspiration to us all, so to all you youngsters of less than 99, get on your feet and get into the garden!

Keep safe, keep well, we will meet again…
Richard