Awards Dinner Wednesday 6 July 2016
Saturday 16 July 2016
Our Annual Awards Dinner was held at Stationers Hall on lovely summer evening. After drinks in the garden, 124 Liveryman and guests enjoyed an excellent Dinner and presented our 2016 Awards:
ROYAL SCHOOL OF NEEDLEWORK
Claire de Waard for best technical stitch who is having a busy summer working at Zandra Rhodes
Constance (Connie) Wynn for highest achieving second year who is spending her summer working at Jasper Conran.
3rd PRINCESS OF WALES ROYAL REGIMENT
Commanding Officer Lt Col Andy Betts read the citations for our two winners
The Needlemakers Sword: 2nd Lieut Ruben Rees
Salerno Statuette: Staff Sergeant Nick Carney
Mrs Jackie Foster presented the Salerno Statuette, which was originally presented to the Company by Alan and Jackie.
We welcomed the Master Gold and Silver Wyre Drawer, Robert Lampitt and his wife Hannah, along with their Clerk, Commander Robin House who is retiring after 12 excellent service. We also welcomed the Master Joiner and Ceiler, Mark Snelling and Sally Douglas.
Our guest speaker was Major James Cameron.
The Master said in introduction:
'Needlemakers support apprentices where we can (often with matched funding from City and Guilds). The Clerk I had the privilege to see the amazing support for our injured servicemen from Help for Heroes. There we met Major James Cameron, Chief Executive of Mission Motorsport: the Forces' Motorsport Charity. They provide sport, training and vocational assistance to those affected by military operations. It is a simple but clever idea: many servicemen and women are engineers and love cars – great motivation.
So we agreed, with matched funding from City and Guilds, to support a young army engineer with severe PTSD from service in Afghanistan and James found him the perfect engineering apprenticeship at Silverstone. Carl had a great start although now he is having a tough time and the charity are doing all they can to help him.
So we are very pleased to James, now retired after distinguished service with the Royal Tank Regiment and Mention in Dispatches. He retired from the Army in 2012 to found Mission Motorsport, which in the first four years has seen over 800 soldiers, sailors and airmen through their program.'
James gave a moving address about the needs or our injured servicemen and the support they receive. This was very timely with the publication of the Chilcot Report on the day of our Dinner.
The Master announcing the awards
Liverymen and their guests enjoy the dinner