I’m honoured and very proud to have been elected as Master of the Worshipful Company of Butchers for the 2025/26 Livery year.
Those attending Common Hall will have heard me express the experience as a Rollercoaster and during my year I’m hoping to share with you the thrills and spills of the ride so please buckle up!
Being very honest Common Hall itself was a bit of a blur…focussing hard on the election result then the acceptance speech, the script for chairing the second part of the meeting, the lunch, the photographs.
It was only when entering the familiar surroundings of the pub that I began to realise what had just happened.
Two days later, my first engagement as Master saw Virginia and me joining 30 other Masters and their consorts donning our hairnets (always a great leveller) and protective clothing to experience the delights of Master Poulter and fellow WCB Liveryman, Paul Kelly’s Turkey farm near Chelmsford. A wonderful welcome from other Masters but talk about in at the deep end!
Paul and family were, of course, terrific hosts explaining clearly, thoroughly and very proudly the nature of their very successful business.
We witnessed at first hand Paul’s skills at carving a turkey…he’s held the Guinness World Record for doing so at 3 minutes 19.47 seconds since 2009…. who knew!
Chairing a brief, formal Court meeting and appointing PM Dr Margaret Boanas as Deputy Master and PM Ian Kelly as Almoner was the precursor to an emotional dinner for the Immediate Past Master John Allton Jones. We toasted John in true style with a fitting banquet.
If it’s Thursday it must be Birmingham and the Meat Management Industry awards. I was promised an exciting night and so it proved!
21 awards and 21 deserving winners, a great atmosphere recognising and celebrating success.
I haven’t been to an awards night on this scale for a while and what an eye opener! The enthusiasm and excitement from all competitors…let alone the winners was terrific. The breadth and depth of the winning products astonishing and equalled only by the youth and enthusiasm of the winners. Witnessing this first hand left me in no doubt the future of the industry is very bright. Thank you, Meat Management.
My first formal Masters’ Lunch was at the invitation of the Farmers. Visiting the Hall around the corner from Butchers’ Hall, I was thrilled to be introduced and sit with the Deacon of the Fleshers of Aberdeen. With lots in common we identified and talked about meat industry personalities we both knew, north of the border. While WCB already has a relationship with the Fleshers of Glasgow it’s great to be able to go to an event and develop another industry one.
Exercising my right as a Freeman to drive (my)sheep over Southwark Bridge was a real privilege and the event, only fairly recently resurrected, saw me “driving” with fellow WCB Liverymen. The event has all the makings of a great spectacle…. not sure the sheep would agree though!
September ended with the pomp and circumstance of the election of the Lord Mayor. Only Liverymen get a vote and WCB’s seniority meant I processed in full regalia through Guildhall to the front row. A privilege indeed to see and vote, at close quarters, in the election of Dame Susan Langley DBE the 697th Lord Mayor…incidentally she’s going to be known as the first Lady Mayor! When you see me next remind me to tell you the origin of the term “keep it under your hat”!
