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2014 Exclusive City Dinner
The Master arrested and bailed
Fire Cadet Awards
The Massey Shaw Dinner
The Pepys Project
A great evening was had on Tuesday 11th
November, when the WCoFF hosted an
exclusive City dinner for over a hundred guests
at Catlin’s head offices in the heart of London.
Catlin Group, one of the City’s leading global
specialty property and casualty Insurance and
Reinsurance companies, had provided a
wonderful venue in their banqueting suite and
the food and wine were of excellent quality.
Peter Holland CBE QFSM FIFireE, Chief Fire and
Rescue Advisor to HM Government, welcomed
guests on behalf of the WCoFF, in particular
Penny Mordaunt MP, Parliamentary Under-
Secretary of State covering fire, resilience and
emergencies.
The City Dinner event is a fund raising effort for
specific causes of the WCoFF Charitable Trust in
Youth Education and Training and, before the
meal started, there was an opportunity to hear
about the great work going into the training of
local fire cadets. The Master, Bryan Spearman,
made a presentation on behalf of the WCoFF to
their top fire cadet, who gave a very moving
speech saying how much her attendance at Fire
Cadets had given her in terms of confidence and
motivation in her life.
From funds raised at last year’s dinner, the
WCoFF Charitable Trust had also been able to
send 10 children to the 2014 summer burns
camps organised by The Burns Camp Trust and,
after the meal, guests were able to hear from
Paul Fuller, organizer of the Burns Trust and
Karen Reid, a volunteer helper, about the
educational and confidence benefits that children,
who have been severely burned, get from
attendance at the summer camps. Frank David,
Chairman of the Charitable Trust, who, along
with the Master and Past Master Michael Harper,
had attended the camp itself to see its work,
spoke of how he felt that this had been one of
the most deserving causes he had witnessed for
the funds of the Charitable Trust.
A group of singers from the Tring Performing
Arts School gave some great renditions of a
number of songs from well known musicals
ending with, on this notable date, patriotically
leading the company in the singing of “Land of
Hope and Glory”, with much flag waving.
The cry went up from our Master: "Friends,
Liverymen, Freemen of the Worshipful Company
of Firefighters, I am in need of your urgent
assistance!"
He had been invited to coffee with the Lord
Mayor, Alderman Alan Yarrow, and the Lady
Mayoress, along with several other Masters, to
be “arrested” by the City of London Police on a
trumped-up charge and then incarcerated in the
Tower of London until his Bail, which had been
set at £1,000 was paid, all in aid of the British Red
Cross.
Fortunately, members did come to his rescue, so
he was saved having to live on Perrier water and
artisan cheese for too long.
Past Master Frank David and Upper Warden Ron
Murray went to present the certificates at the
passing out parade of Tower Hamlets Fire Cadets
at the end of March. The Education team there
were very grateful for our support and thrilled to
hear a wonderful response from the cadet
getting the top award. He said "thank you so
much for the year - it went so fast and I am so
happy that I decided to attend. I had such an
amazing time and I can't thank you enough for
choosing me at the beginning. I want to share
what I have learnt about the fire service. I can't
wait to be a junior cadet." Wasn't that a
wonderful response and makes all the efforts so
worthwhile?
On 4th March, the Master, Bryan Spearman,
welcomed members and guests to one of the last
formal Company events of his year, the Massey
Shaw Dinner. This took place in the Insurance
Hall a few days after the wonderful ceremony
where the Company had been formally
presented with its new Royal Charter. The
Company silverware was also on display. After
the dinner, the Master spoke well of his year in
office, guests were warmly welcomed with many
of the ladies present given lovely bouquets.
Next year sees the 350th anniversary of the
Great Fire of London in 1666. The City of
London intends to celebrate the event and we
are involved in that planning process., Separately,
under the auspices of the PR and Marketing
Committee, a Pepys group has been working on
the WCoFF's contribution to the year: a walking
tour, a commemorative book (with new forensic
analysis from Peter Mansi) and possibly a special
"app" are being planned. If you would like to get
involved with any of this activity, please contact
Past Master Viv Jones. But look out for some
interesting occasions to mark this momentous
event in the life of the City of London.