Page 18 - A4 Journal 2022

The Company

The “Clerk’s Eye View”

It is our Gallant Clerk who runs the Administration of the Company in consultation with the
Master. He reflects on the last two years and looks forward to the resumption of “life as
usual”. He writes:
“The return to “normal” has not been as rapid as I and a lot of people had expected. The
initial, and as it turns out well founded reticence has largely passed, however the habits of
lockdown have transposed themselves into the Livery’s “Long Covid”. What I mean by this is
that our Membership has, just like the rest of the Livery got out of the habit of getting into a
posh frock and a dinner jacket (not necessarily at the same time) and coming out to an
evening event. This did improve somewhat at the Installation Dinner and I hope will actually be back to
normal at Livery and Awards Dinner in February 2023.
Covid has had some lasting effects which are not all bad. Whilst Court and the Management Committees
have returned to face-to-face the Executive committees have continued to largely meet on Zoom, Teams
etc. This had had the advantage of better attendance and the Committees working more efficiently. The
return of live Networking events and the Ironmongers’ Lunches has also continued to grow in strength.
When I wrote my Covid article two years ago we were just appointing our first 3 Junior Court Assistants. At
the Court in December we will appoint the third group of Michael Rigden, Carlo Madeddu and Juna
Margariti. This will make the restructuring of the Court Assistants into : Senior CA’s - Those that have a date
to be Master (if elected and spared); Junior CAs - Those that will serve 3 years and may progress, go for re-
election and return to the Livery, possibly to return as a Senior CA when their careers allow.
Looking to the future we are back with a full programme of both formal and informal events and the
opportunity exists to enjoy as many of these as you can and I look forward to seeing as many as possible at
our events in the New Year.”

Richard (Kim) Tyrell

Membership

The membership of the Worshipful Company of Constructors is an essential component of the success of the
Company. There is inevitably an element of “churn” especially in hard economic times and we have gained 25
members and lost 28 members in the last year, with 4 Freemen having been clothed as Liverymen.

At the end of November 2022 we had 312 members of which 139 were Freemen and 128 were Liverymen.
The average age of our members was 56.8 years in November 2022 compared with 57.2 years in November
2021.
Sadly, 3 of our members have died since the last issue of the journal.

Membership News

Rob Beales was admitted to the Company in May 2022. He writes:

“I have now been a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Constructors for some 6
months. I joined to be part of the historic tradition and to have an understanding of the way
Livery Companies play an important role in the governance of the City of London. I wanted
to support the way the City is governed, along with its corporate activities. I am therefore
looking forward to gaining my Freedom of the City of London later this year and then
continuing to support the Livery in their good work for the betterment of the City of
London. To date I’ve visited a range of exquisite livery halls and the dinners, social
networking and diverse member groups, along with their core philanthropic work make me feel honoured to
be part of an ever expanding and important Company.”

Page 18 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors | Autumn 2022