Spring Livery Dinner 2019

Spring Livery Dinner 2019

THE APOTHECARIES’ HALL PROVES JUST THE TONIC FOR THE SPRING LIVERY DINNER

At this year’s Spring Livery Dinner, the splendour of Apothecaries’ Hall was complemented by exquisite music emanating from a 1793 Mantegazza viola, played so beautifully by renowned recitalist and chamber musician, Virginia Slater.

Dinner was a perfect symphony of delicately fragrant Thai fishcakes, accompanied by a 2017 Bergerac, followed by loin of Salt Marsh lamb with spring greens and a lively Valpolicella, and to close, we were tempted by Sicilian lemon tart with orange boodle and lime sorbet.

The Master’s speech focused on the Livery’s charitable activities.  From his recent visit to Treloars College, where he witnessed the caring, yet stimulating, environment the young, handicapped students enjoy, to the charity lunch on 20th July at his East Sussex home, in aid of the St. Michael‘s Hospice in Hastings.  He also gave credit to PM Jeremy Brassington, on whose initiative the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Trust is now part of our charitable giving programme.

The Master acknowledged the work of Liveryman, Ted Andrews, a leading manufacturer of modern felt products.  He has been working with Lock & Co. to test a new felt product. In addition, Professor Chris Carr, Head of the School of Design at the University of Leeds, has met Jeremy Brassington and Nigel Macdonald to discuss possible collaboration between the University and our Company. The Master closed with a vote of thanks to PM, John Bowler, who has commissioned three important research papers into the early history of Feltmaking, assisted by Professor Harry Duckworth and Stephen Freeth. John’s daughter, Kathryn, collated and bound the finished work into three superb volumes.

After the Master took wine with new Liveryman, Samantha Gordon (daughter of Liveryman Graeme), Court Assistant, Anne Mannix, delivered a most eloquent welcome to the Master’s guests, proposed the Toast, and introduced David Simpson, the co-founder of Petplan, as the Master’s principal guest.

David related an amusing tale which illustrated how ill-prepared some politicians are for public service! One Alison Rudd, an amateur genealogist, discovered a colourful character named Remus Rudd among her forebears.  He had been a horse thief, sent to Melbourne jail in 1885, escaped in 1887, robbed the Melbourne to Geelong train six times, was caught by the Victoria police, convicted and hanged in 1889.

She wrote to Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister of Australia, to find out if he had any additional information. His staff sent back the following:

Remus Rudd was famous in Victoria during the 1880s. His business empire grew to include the acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and he had intimate dealings with the Melbourne-Geelong railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years to government service finally taking leave in 1887 to resume his dealings with the railroad. He was a key player in a vital investigation run by the Victoria police force. He passed away in 1889 during an important civic occasion held in his honour when the platform he was standing on collapsed.

This led David to question his own credentials for setting up Petplan. After all, he had a background in property finance, no pets and no knowledge of veterinary services or the insurance sector.

Over the past 20 years, his animal clients have generated many “tails”!  There was accident prone, Sinbad, the Chow Chow, whose 50ft plunge from a Cornish cliff may have been a suicide attempt and therefore might have been exempt from the insurance plan.  It wasn’t.  Or the Persian cat with a penchant for knickers, whose regular diet of lingerie lead to numerous visits to the vet.

More recently, David encountered a horse whisperer working in Guatemala.  A chance encounter led her to use her horse whispering techniques with youth gangs, where she introduces a 17 hand horse and asks a youth to hold it and monitor his own and the horse’s heart rate.  Initially, both readings are high but after three minutes simply standing in silence alongside each other, both heart rates drop. A simple demonstration of the importance of trust.

David closed by reminding us or the livery companies which have, for centuries, lead the way in their charitable work, supporting and encouraging the application of traditional skills in today’s world.

With the emphasis on helping all those who share our beautiful planet, we ended a superb evening with a stirrup cup before departing home, many to our faithful friends.

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