Election of Sheriffs
24th June 2015"These are to require you to cause all the livery of your Company to be summoned to meet at Guildhall on Tuesday 24th June next, by 11.45am for the election of sheriffs and other officers, annually chosen on Midsummer Day..........Hereof you are not to fail........."
That was the summons and and we did not fail. On 24th June the Master, one or two Wardens and a sprinkling of Liverymen were at Common Hall for the election of the sheriffs who will serve the new Lord Mayor in 2015/16. Alderman Charles Bowman and Dr Christine Rigden were elected unopposed to succeed our Past Master Non-Aldermanic Sheriff Fiona Adler and Alderman and Sheriff Andrew Parmley, Charles Bowman will be the Aldermanic Sheriff and Christine Rigden the Non-Aldermanic. The Hall was packed as usual as the name cards were held up and cries of Aye were duily delivered when asked. The nightmare of candidates must be that cries of Never are heard. Not of course on this occasion. My last memory of Christine Rigden is dressed in her Ale Conner's leather trousers, sitting in a puddle of beer testing its viscosity. This is the important task of an Ale Conner, which she is, in order to see that the correct amount of sugar and alcohol is present. Were she to rise from the puddle with the seat attached, the beer would be deemed too sticky and too low in alcohol. But on this occasion she was more elegantly dressed as was her fellow candidate Charles Bowman. After the election we adjourned to Stationers' Hall for a splendid lunch. The Stationers hosted a large number of peripatic Livery companies and we filled their lovely dining hall.