The Blessed Trinity – Good Food, Wine and Conversation.

 Trinity House & Cadets

After a refreshing sparkling wine reception, the Master rang the ships bell from the Royal Yacht Britannia to call everyone to dinner.  The bell was originally presented to the late HM Queen Elizabeth II by Trinity House in 1953 and was given back to Trinity House when the Royal Yacht was decommissioned.

 Master ringing Britannia Ship’s Bell

We were treated to the debut performance of the drummers from RAF Cadets’ 1147 Barking Squadron who only formed a few months ago.  Awards were presented to Cadets of the Year, Cadet Corporal Ajal Manikath from 23 Army Cadet detachment, Royal Engineers, Islington, and Cadet Sgt Muhammad Zubair from RAF 1147 Barking Squadron Air Cadets.

Cadets and Drummers

Our three newest Liverymen, Simon Evans, Nicholas Drew and Stuart Gaulton, clothed at the Court Meeting earlier in the day were introduced.  We congratulated our former Beadle, Peter Thomson, on becoming an Honorary Liveryman.

New Liverymen

Prize Winner Leading Engineering Technician Robert Henderson-Bain, who trained at HMS Sultan, had earlier in the afternoon been presented with his Best Trainee of 2025 award in Welding, Coppersmith and Sheet Metal Work, was introduced. He was accompanied by LT Russell Orr Burns.  Both are serving on HMS Queen Elizabeth and received a rousing cheer from the diners for the terrific job they do in defending us all. How appropriate that we were able to present their award at Trinity House.

HMS Sultan Award Winner

After a sumptuous dinner, including the Master’s special choice of knickerbocker glory for dessert, we had a musical interlude with Jane Wilkinson and Ben Costello entertaining us with, of course, a watery theme.  It took one or two a moment to fall into the subtle reasons for the music choice, such as ‘Oh Danny Boy’ – think about It!

Members at Dinner

The Upper Warden Elect introduced the speaker and welcomed our guests, including visiting Masters/Prime Warden from other companies.

Master, Dr Shaun Wallace, Prime Warden Blacksmiths

Upper Warden Elect

Our guest speaker, Dr Shaun Wallace, gave an inspiring talk on how he had overcome many challenges to achieve his childhood ambition of becoming a barrister.  He described how his career as a TV quizzer took off after becoming the first black person to win BBC’s Mastermind.  At the reception and during the stirrup cup, many of you had photographs taken with him.

Guest Speaker Dr Shaun Wallace

The Master in her speech reflected on the programme since the April Court and for the remainder of her year and thanked Liverymen for the enormous support she has received.  All social events had sold out and the Master’s Break had been fully subscribed.  She also thanked our sponsors for this year, Burfields House Wealth Management, PEW, HDR and Catchpole & Rye, whose support has helped keep our event costs down.

Master’s Speech

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This was the last formal event of the Master’s year.  However, there are still a couple more social events this year: a backstage tour of Shakespear’s Globe Theatre and optional performance of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, not a comment on her year she quipped, and the Plumbers’ Table, both in September.  Look out for the flyers in the coming weeks.

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