The Installation Dinner for the new Warden of the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire was held in the Cheltenham Pump Room. The Dinner was attended by 63 members and their guests. The outgoing Warden, Julie Kent, spoke before handing over the chain of office to the incoming Warden, Michael Jones, who gave his perspective on the future of the Company, which is set out below:
I feel honoured to become the Warden of the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire. Since I have been on Court I have worked with three outstanding Wardens, Chris Gaskell, Andrew Tabor and Julie Kent, and it is therefore with some degree of trepidation that I embark on the role of your Warden. Having to follow Julie is quite daunting, she has accomplished a great deal against the back drop of her ill health, but she still retained her energy and enthusiasm which was amazing.
I am looking forward to working with the Assistant Warden, Nicola de longh, and Junior Warden, Ruth Dooley; their background is different to mine and I will appreciate their counsel. I also look forward to working with the existing Interest Group chairs: Mark Hurrell, Andy Hodson and new chairs, Paul Massey and Peter Randall. The chair of the Business Group is vacant so I am open to volunteers and hoping to be overwhelmed with applications!
At the AGM I shared my experience and our progress with the Company’s Apprentice Award. The award is more successful than I could have imagined. Anne Cadbury’s generous donation enabled the award, but I could not have championed this award without the help and counsel of many of our members, my thanks particularly go to the then chair of our Trust, Mark Heywood; I and the award are in his debt. In order to build on Ann Cadbury’s legacy, and the awards success I would like to extend its reach to the whole of Gloucestershire, but for this to occur we will need to raise additional funds. This will be one of my main areas of focus whilst I am Warden.
Sir Henry had a vision to create a company “For Gloucestershire” similar in operation to the London Livery companies, with the formation and evolution of the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire his vision has been delivered.
During its evolution Sir Henry and other members, through their connections, have been able to enlist people to join The Company, who are prepared to add value to our County. Sadly membership has reduced, hence I would now like to ask you, through your connections, to invite people to join our Company with the objective of building upon Sir Henry’s legacy of developing an organisation “For Gloucestershire”.
Julie in her opening address, when installed as Warden, made mention of how the world has changed particularly in terms of communication. Continuing on the theme of a changing world, I feel it is important that the Company remains current. Therefore, over the next few months I wish to engage with our members to commence a debate and solicit opinion as to how we may remain current to pursue our aim of being “for” Gloucestershire.
