Master Water Conservator

Members will recollect that the Master sent condolences on behalf of the Company to the King on the Death of Queen Elizabeth II. We have received the following gracious acknowledgment.  God Save the King

 Oceans in Crisis: Securing the Future of our Planet At the invitation of the   Fishmongers’ Company and the University of Exeter,   the Thames Warden, Martin Bigg, on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators and the Water Conservation Trust, attended   Fishmongers’ Hall for a series of talks on the future of our oceans.   Professor Callum Roberts, University of Exeter, described how the oceans had absorbed heat to keep the global temperature rise to about 1.5C.   Without their heat capacity temperatures would have risen by 36C. There are now 70% fewer fish, mammals and reptiles in the oceans than before the onset of industrial fishing.   George Duffield, Blue Marine Foundation, reminded us that 71% of the earth’s surface is ocean but the destruction and overfishing of the oceans is out of sight and out of mind.   Currently there are 4.5 million fishing vessels worldwide.   By combatting overfishing, we can help life in the oc...

Past Master Mark Lane, and Thames Warden Martin Bigg, represented the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators at the Service of Remembrance in St Paul’s Cathedral.  Masters and wardens of all the livery companies, the Lord Mayor and representatives of the City and Corporation of London attended the service.  At the end of the Service after the two minute silence, we walked down Cheapside to the Royal Exchange where we assembled near the Memorial. The Lord Mayor laid the first wreath with the Master Fruiterer laying the last official wreath, on behalf of all livery companies. We then stood outside the Mansion House to watch the March Past by Veterans and the Band of the Honourable Artillery Company. The Clerk, Christine Duthie, represented the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators at Tower Hill where she laid a wreath on behalf on the Company. The Cook and The Butler hosted a special lunch in the Guildhall with appropriate readings for the occasion and a dessert prese...

The Thames Warden, Martin Bigg and Clerk, Christine Duthie, were guests of the Worshipful Company of Fuellers for their 17th Ezra Memorial Lecture given by Louise Kingham CBE FEI, Senior Vice President, Europe & Head of Country UK, bp plc at the Brewers' Hall.  Louise was previously Chief Executive of the Energy Institute and gave a fascinating picture of global and local energy issues.  She was very open to debate on UK reserves, fracking and current protests.  The lecture was followed by an enjoyable reception with representatives of livery companies and the energy industries.

  The City of London and Livery Companies organise an Act of Remembrance in the garden of St Paul’s Cathedral duing the week before Remembrance Sunday.   This year the Masters or Senior Wardens and Clerks gathered in the garden for a service conducted by the Dean of St Paul’s with the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and Aldermen of the City of London.   The Thames Warden, Martin Bigg, and Clerk, Christine Duthie, attended on behalf of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators and planted a cross in the garden.

On Tuesday 15 November the Master’s Consort enjoyed a Consorts’ Lunch at the Guildhall Club, kindly organized by the Consort of the Master Arts Scholar.  The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars was constituted as a Livery Company in 2014 and is involved in educational and charitable work in the fields of applied and decorative arts.  The lunch was a well attended and most congenial event and had the added advantage of an exceptional speaker in the person of jewellery historian John Benjamin.  Mr Benjamin gave a fascinating account of his personal journey from a Wembley schoolboy bullied because of a bad stutter through work in retail jewellery and auction houses to a thirty year career as an expert on the Antiques Road Show.  The Consorts were extremely unwilling to allow him to sit down and overall this was an outstanding afternoon’s entertainment, with special thanks due to Consort Deborah Black.  Georgina Drummond

On Monday 14 November the Master and Clerk attended the ‘Masters and Clerks’ lunch generously hosted by the Worshipful Company of Farmers at Farmers and Fletchers Hall for their associated liveries. It was a delightful event with outstanding British food (as was to be expected) and excellent conversation. There is an obvious overlap and mutual dependency between farming and water. We have a long standing and particularly warm relationship with the Farmers’ Company dating back to 2008 when they were founder members along with ourselves of the WET 10. It was lovely to renew our relationship, which means a lot to your Master, and we look forward to reciprocating their hospitality in the new year.

On 12 November the Master, his Consort and the Thames Warden joined the other modern liveries to walk in the Lord Mayor’s parade. Our group was escorted by a Routemaster bus. Starting at London Wall, we processed through the City, passed the Bank of England and Guildhall and ended our outward journey at HQS Wellington, where we had most welcome refreshments courtesy of the Master Mariner. Suitably fortified we made our way back by a slightly different route, again past Guildhall and the Bank, to London Wall. It was a beautiful sunny day and the crowds were bigger than ever. We acknowledged and were acknowledged by the outgoing and the incoming Lord Mayor and by our vocal supporters in the crowds, including Past Master Mark Lane and Judy and Walbrook Warden Carolyn Roberts and Stephen. (Apologies to others we may have missed). Yet again it makes us proud of our beautiful capital city and its wonderful inhabitants. Only London of all the cities in the world could put on such a display!

On 11 November the Master and his Consort attended the ‘Silent Ceremony’ at Guildhall. This marks the end of office for the previous Lord Mayor (Vincent Keaveny) and the Installation of the current one (Nicholas Lyons). A particular fascination is how the various judicial and executive powers are passed formally and seamlessly from one to another - it is at the heart of City Governance. (Our own Installation ceremony does the same, in a much smaller scale and less silently!). Georgina and I were particularly interested to note where the new Lord Mayor signs for the inventory of City silver - a serious matter since if anything were missing it would cost a lot!

On 10 November members and guests were treated to a splendid splendid Banquet at Cutlers Hall. Strikes and threats of strikes were not sufficient to deter us from a wonderful event! We were really privileged to have John Gummer/Baron Deben as our guest speaker (and to have Lady Deben assist our Clerk with the table layout!). It was very special to me personally since John spoke at our Banquet in 2007 when I was previously Master. John was and remains ‘the Environment Secretary against whom all others are judged’ and of course is now chair of the UK’s Independent Committee on Climate Change. He made a truly inspiring speech encouraging us on our path of ‘convening civilised intelligent debate on water and environmental matters.’ Everyone, both company members and guests, was talking about the speech afterwards (and continue to do so now). It really gave the Company our marching orders on our current public policy work and is a wonderful introduction to our flagship City Water Debate on ...

I had a very good meeting with Iain Coucher to share ideas on water sector governance and see if he would join our panel of speakers for the City Water Debate. Iain kindly agreed to speak at the Debate on 21/3/23. With the Chairs of the EA, OFWAT and Anglian Water, plus Sir Dieter Helm and the chief executive of British Water it promises to be an excellent and very high profile event. We had a wide ranging conversation round the two big issues he sees - water shortages/supply and storm water overflows. On water supply he felt the underlying situation was very fragile and likely to get more so with climate change, localised population growth and restrictions on abstractions. To meet 2050 requirements we needed a combination of: (i) leakage reduction; (ii)18 new schemes (ranging from new reservoirs to a variety of bulk transfers); and (iii) a 20% plus reduction in per capita use of water. The required leakage reduction seems achievable but it was not clear who would really drive th...