TRIBUTES

ENID GODWIN, LIVERYWOMAN & HEADMISTRESS OF THE MARY DATCHELOR SCHOOL Words of Appreciation by Vaninne Parkers (Chair, the ‘Old Girls Club’)

[Enid passed away in December 2019.]

One can never know how farreaching may be the effects of a small generosity or a practical, but wise, decision. Miss Mary Datchelor’s bequest of 1726 – to enable the apprenticeship of two poor children of the City of London – eventually lost its original purpose, as social conditions changed. In the 1870s, her endowment was freed up; with it, the Mary Datchelor School was founded in Camberwell in 1877. The school struggled financially until it was transferred from the control of the Charity Commissioners to The Clothworkers’ Company in 1894. The Company provided generous support for generations of girls (and a few boys in early times), up to and during the post-World War II period, when the Mary Datchelor School entered the state system and came under the administration of the London County Council. It received additional help from the Clothworkers. The school’s closure in 1981, due to changes in education policy, remains a great sadness.

All is not lost though. Nearly 40 years on, there is still a very active ‘Old Girls’ Club’ with 810 members worldwide. Miss Enid Godwin, the final mistress of the Mary Datchelor School, was one of them. The club holds regular local meetings with lunches, theatre or concert visits – essentially any excuse for friendly connection. Members have visited Wilson’s School to view the mural that once hung in the Mary Datchelor School’s main hall. The small draft for it was spotted and purchased at auction by an old girl in recent years. We’ve also been to see the Mary Datchelor stained glass, now hanging in Blackheath High. We’ve been on tours of Parliament, the Tower of London and more besides.

In 2014, we were delighted and grateful to be allowed the use of Clothworkers’ Hall, so that we could celebrate the 125th anniversary of our club. Dr Carolyn Boulter (Master, 2017-18) was our guest of honour. How we remember her and also her grandfather, Major Beachcroft when he was Chairman of the Governors!

Even now, like birds coming home to roost, many of us gather at St. Olave’s, Hart Street, for the Mary Datchelor carol service each year. Sometimes members have come from the Highlands, Solomon Islands and once, Tasmania! On the day of the carol service, just as we notice the bust of Samuel Pepys up there on the wall, always looking towards that of his wife across the nave, so we remain forever mindful of the strong resonance that the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers holds for Mary Datchelor women.

HUGH BOULTER, CONSORT TO PAST MASTER CAROLYN BOULTER (2017-18) Words of Appreciation by Past Master Michael Jarvis (2016-17)

[Hugh passed away this past June.]

Hugh’s background was in education and charities. He had a most admirable passion for dialogue between faiths in the Middle East – in which he was an indefatigable chair, facilitator, trainer and mentor. He was awarded a PhD in which he studied the role of the Holy Spirit in Christianity and Islam as a vehicle for understanding. He greatly enjoyed travelling and meeting individuals from other cultures; and he felt at home in most of the countries of the Middle and Far East.

Life for Hugh started out on the Cumbrian coast at St Bees, where his father – a man of the cloth – was headmaster during World War II.

Leaping two decades, he took his first degree at Corpus Christi, which members of the Court will remember as the centre point of the Master’s Outing at the completion of his wife’s year of service. He is alleged to have taken the rather opaque comment of the Oxford careers office to heart: ‘Mr Boulter; it is a pity we no longer have an Empire; you would have made an excellent Colonial Officer’. Instead, he volunteered to teach in Nigeria and shortly thereafter found himself as acting headmaster. His administrative talent and quiet leadership were to permeate the rest of his career.

Carolyn and Hugh were of course the first full-time occupants of the new Master’s flat at our Hall. I asked a member of the staff about their recollection of the Consort to our first Lady Master. The reply referred to how quite extraordinarily supportive Hugh was of Carolyn – the unobtrusive companion, always there when needed. And that same member of our staff suggested to me that one very high point of ‘their’ year must have been their 50th wedding anniversary celebration, perfectly timed to take place at Clothworkers’ Hall.

Finally, a very keen cook himself, you may remember that Hugh sought recipes to which our 2017 St Thomas Eve oranges might usefully be put. He was very kind about my resulting marmalade!

Court Assistant Peter Langley (left) presided over our first London Craft Week event at Clothworkers’ Hall (2018). During the event, we welcomed public audiences to enjoy a lunchtime lecture about the creation of our tapestry, The Caged Bird’s Song, and several opportunities to participate in a masterclass with the Master Weavers of Dovecot Tapestry Studio.

PETER J LANGLEY, ASSISTANT EMERITUS Words of Appreciation by Head of Collections and Archives Jessica Collins

[Peter passed away this past October.]

Peter Langley was raised in Brighton and Hove, and began his legal career in Littlehampton before joining Slaughter and May in 1970. He acted as The Company’s legal adviser for more than 20 years prior to his retirement in 1999, joking that Clothworkers’ took such a long-term view of its property holdings, he was often tempted to negotiate 999-year leases, rather than the customary 99-year term.

Peter was presented with the Honorary Freedom and Livery in 2000, and joined the Court in 2004. However, a quiet retirement was not for him – he completed his Bachelors and Masters degrees in the History of Art at Courtauld in 2003, indulged his love of books by assembling an important collection of fine bookbindings, and chaired our Collections and Archives Committee from 2008. It was at that point that our Company became actively involved in supporting endangered crafts – making significant strides in commissioning silver and bookbindings from talented craftsmen and providing key funding for a number of apprenticeships and bursaries to preserve and develop threatened skills. Peter generously lent some of his own bindings for display in the Hall; in his typically modest way, he didn’t want any formal acknowledgement.

As a member of the Court, he was a driving force behind our new Charter, Ordinances and Standing Orders, and his extensive knowledge of The Company’s holdings was immeasurably valuable to the Property and Investment Committee. The highlight of his tenure was his instrumental role in the ‘Chris Ofili – Dovecot’ tapestry commission, 2014-17. He insisted on calling it so, in recognition of the Master Weavers who painstakingly wove our triptych from Ofili’s small watercolour drawing.

Recently, Peter had taken a welldeserved step back from Clothworker affairs in order to build and enjoy his new home with his beloved wife, Sue, and was thrilled to have welcomed a new grandson into the family last year. Nevertheless, he was always happy to help with any problem big or small, so long as he never became ‘an interference.’

Peter had an effortless ability to make conversation and find common ground with everyone he met. Over a dozen years and countless meetings with binders, conservators, makers and artists, he was never anything other than his warm jovial self, gesticulating animatedly when something enthused him, but importantly, making everyone feel welcome and valued. He was a pleasure to work with and will be deeply missed by his fellow Court Assistants and by all the staff at Clothworkers’ Hall.

Peter is survived by Sue; his children Catherine (Katy) and James, both members of the Livery; his stepchildren Cathryn (Kiki) and Tim; and his ‘collection’ of grandchildren (as he so fondly referred to them).

IN MEMORIAM We regret to announce the following deaths:

F W Loyd Moore Livery (September 2019)

Janice Didriksen Freedom (October 2019)

Brenda Jenkins Freedom (April 2020)

Dame Ingrid Mary Roscoe Freedom (June 2020)