editor’s note
The Master: A Mid-Year Review
Renée LaDue
The Master, Dr Carolyn Boulter
contents
time may be surprised to learn how we are helping the City to evolve (p 16).
master’s welcome 3 New members
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trusteeship 6 charity governance awards 8 clothworkers’ theatre award Bookbinding: An Endangered Craft
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textiles 12 Property update
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affiliations 18 tributes
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notable clothworker
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news & notices
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Front cover: Detail of textile design by New Designers award winner Abi Bruce.
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the clothworker | spring 2018
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lthough it’s been a while since you last heard from us, we’ve been working hard at Dunster Court. In the following pages, you’ll hear from The Company’s first Lady Master with a mid-year report about the work she’s been doing. You’ll be introduced to new staff at the Hall (like me), new members of the Freedom, and special individuals The Company and Foundation have had the privilege of supporting. You’ll read tributes to Clothworkers no longer with us, as well as a history of a past benefactor to one of our causes. We’ll share news from military affiliates, highlights on our collections, and quite a bit more. The Clerk, Jocelyn Stuart-Grumbar, is excited about our progress in supporting good governance and trusteeship across the third sector (p 6). Our Director of Finance, Property and Investments is hard at work helping to secure the future of The Company and our property investments. Those who have not visited the Square Mile for some
As a new member of staff, my aim as the Membership and Communications Manager is to help you forge stronger ties with The Company. I hope to deliver more frequent communications from Clothworkers’ Hall. Beginning with this issue of The Clothworker, which has a new look, we will follow up with the next Annual Review and Members’ Supplement later this spring, and then another edition of the magazine in the early autumn. We will also endeavour to send you a monthly instalment of the e-Clothworker (and you should already have received the March and April issues).
“My aim as the Membership and Communications Manager is to help you forge stronger ties with The Company.” Additionally, you can now connect with us on social media, as we’ve launched accounts on Facebook, Twitter (@ClothworkersCo), and Instagram (Clothworkers_Co). We’ll use these to
Sara Thornton (Chair, National Police Chiefs Council) to speak about ‘Policing Challenges’. At a dinner in December, my guest speaker was Lord Crisp; he is a crossbench life peer who was Chief Executive of the NHS and Permanent Secretary to the Department of Health, and is an expert on world health issues. He spoke under the title, ‘Health, Sight, and Insight’, emphasising connections with our own work with visual impairment in the developing world. Both speeches are in the Members’ Area of the website.
share information and news across the organisation— from news about the Master, history from our archives, updates from The Clothworkers’ Foundation, and more information on events happening in the City. Please connect and engage with us there! I’m eager to learn more about you, and a great way to help me do that would be to keep your membership profile on our website up to date (I’d be happy to remind you how to log in). The Members’ Area allows you to upload a profile picture, amend your contact details and preferences on which communications you want to receive, and tell us more about yourself. Additionally, you can keep track of your Clothworker events, read the latest news from The Company, and review the noticeboard with information from other members or livery companies. You also have access to professional photos from past Company events, the latest Blue Book members’ directory (along with the online search tool), and other resources. Until the next edition, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me to share your own ideas about how we can help improve your experience as a Clothworker: reneeladue@ clothworkers.co.uk.
“It is a great privilege to serve our Company and the City.”
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irst of all, I want to greet all Clothworkers, Freedom, and Livery. Many of you I have welcomed already to the Hall for the Court and Livery dinners or the Freedom lunch. Thank you for your welcome to me on those occasions as the First Lady Master of this great Company. I have been deeply touched by your acceptance of me. Several Past Masters gave me advice before I began in July, especially the Immediate Past Masters Michael Jarvis and Melville Haggard. It has been invaluable and deeply encouraging. Our senior Clothworker, Lord Slim, wrote to me advising me to use the Court fruitfully and—above all—to have fun. More than half way through, I am indeed having fun! I am deeply engaged in all aspects of The Company, its giving and receiving of hospitality, and its committees that inform the decisions of the Court and the work of The Clothworkers’ Foundation in ensuring our main purpose, that of
charitable giving, is effective, creative, and focused. Whereas many livery companies run schools, we decided some years ago to gather behind the banner of trusteeship. We encourage our Livery to become involved as trustees of charities, support workshops to help people develop skills in trusteeship, and celebrate good governance in the third sector with our annual Charity Governance Awards. You can add to these the support, through The Company, of textiles: skills, crafts, innovation, conservation, and industry. The Company fosters relationships with other livery companies interested in textiles, sponsoring a number of awards, and supporting both higher education in textiles and innovation in materials for healthcare at University of Leeds. This year has also been packed with events and huge opportunities to promote the work we do in the relief of need across the Foundation’s nine categories. At a dinner this past October, I took the opportunity to encourage guests to consider work in one area we fund, that with exoffenders, by inviting Chief Constable
Finally, there have been many opportunities to support the Lord Mayor and the City. My husband, Hugh, and I attended the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, when Theresa May was one of the guest speakers, and I was able to join the planning committee for the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch in aid of The Soldiers’ Charity—a wonderful introduction to the varied institutions and businesses that make the City tick. Hugh is close beside me through all of this, as we decided to utilise the Master’s flat throughout the week this year. We are the first to do this for some time and are greatly enjoying life in the City. The staff look after us wonderfully, and it’s lovely to be able to see Joss, our Clerk, nearly every morning and keep in touch with what’s going on, from the kitchens to the Foundations’ offices. We also go to the midweek Communion at St Olave’s, enjoy the theatre and cinema, and explore parts of London we have never visited before. It is a great privilege to serve our Company and the City; I hope it will prove a fruitful year and one that we will continue to enjoy. the clothworker | spring 2018
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