So, one month in, what are my reflections?

As expected, it is a busy but exciting, fascinating and life-affirming role. I learnt a lot as a member of the Court and have had wonderful support and advice from Past Master Aroop and Immediate Past Master Julia. However, you never truly understand a post until you are in the role – and being Master is no exception. I am also not sure I have fully lost the feeling of impostor syndrome.

The support at the Installation Court, service, and dinner was fantastic. Having my local church choir lead the worship was particularly special – they are often referred to as a cathedral choir without a cathedral.

September has been a very busy month, both within the Society and across the City. I will not bore you with a list of all the lunches, dinners, and receptions, except to note that it is helpful that I have maintained jogging! The Livery Masters have established a WhatsApp group, which rapidly helped me to come up to speed on events and issues.

A highlight of the month was the Halls Walk. It began in our courtyard with breakfast at 8am and finished 12 hours and 41 halls later – still in robes – with a reception at Glaziers’ Hall. It was a great way to meet fellow Masters.

We also held a very successful apprentices’ dinner in our Hall – what a lively and exciting group! It was fantastic to attend the first sports dinner and to award the caps. Again, a lot of enthusiasm, and I have warned other Masters that they can expect to see much more competition from us at future inter livery sporting   events.

A special moment was the cocktail reception with the Distillers’ Company, when we officially opened their office in the Hall and confirmed very good relations following our somewhat acrimonious split in 1638.

One of the greats joys of being a Master is attending and speaking at events for other liveries, both in our Hall and in theirs.

There have been some new events and memorable events. I was part of a small group who attended Samuel Pepys day. The gates of Temple Bar in Paternoster Square were closed, and an actor portraying Pepys asked for entry before reading an extract from his diary, written on the morning of the Great Fire. The event attracted a large crowd of tourists – most of whom had no idea what was happening, only that it was very photogenic!

Animals have also featured quite prominently, with the Livery Committee, organising for us to take part in the Sheep Drive for the first time – huge thanks to Helen Steele for arranging this. The Mistress and I also joined other Masters at Kelly’s turkey farm in Essex, organised by the Poulterers’ Company. Everyone agreed that Christmas morning will never be the same again.

Several religious services have taken place, including the Thanksgiving service for the outgoing Lord Mayor. This was followed by the election of the new Lady Mayor at Guildhall. It was great to see so many from the Apothecaries present and voting.

September has been a very successful month for the Centre for Health Studies and our courses. It was a pleasure to give the introduction to the three-day History of Medicine course, to join the well-attended Keats lecture, and to provide introductory remarks at the welcome day for new students across our courses: History of Medicine, Ethics & Philosophy of Medicine, and Conflict & Catastrophe Medicine. It was especially encouraging to see the conversations between the different groups of students.

I must highlight Open House Day – a huge thank you to all who volunteered. We welcomed just under 1300 visitors, and the response on social media was fantastic. At one point, the queue stretched all the way back to Blackfriars station!

I was involved in a series of meetings throughout the month to agree a new path for the Life Science Initiative, which the Society is leading on behalf of the Lord Mayor as part of the Growth Unleashed programme.

As Master, you are effectively the chairman of an SME, so there’s a range of internal meetings to attend, alongside chairing the Private Court. Additionally, this month we finalised the Handbook, and I co-authored an article with Liveryman Tony Cartwright for the Apothecary Journal, exploring the interaction between apothecaries with medicines.

You might well ask is there a time for life beyond being a master?

The answer is yes. There are family, and professional activities. The former included our second grandson’s christening, while the latter involves my roles as Local Councillor and in lay ministry. In addition to the installation sermon, I have given four other sermons this month. It was an absolute privilege to lead the service for the 85th anniversary of the battle of Britain at St George’s Memorial Chapel being in Biggin Hill. Linked to the city, there was a commemorative walk for my old school between St Dunstan in the East and the new site of the college, raising money for charity. I was asked to deliver the president of the faculty pharmaceutical medicines inaugural lecture which was well attended by members of our livery.

As Master, you consume a fair quantity of wine, so taking part in a grape picking day for charity seemed highly appropriate. I picked 50 buckets of grapes which should yield 250 bottles of wine!

I also managed some time at the Oval, between engagements and the showers, to watch the last County matches, with Surrey unfortunately failing to secure a third successive championship trophy.

September ended with the Yeomanry dinner – one of my favourite dinners of the year. It was a great occasion and wonderful to celebrate the links with our military units, and what better timing than to have a picture of our affiliated ship, HMS Somerset, featured in the Times that morning undertaking operational duties.

During my Mayoral year, I collected humorous remarks each month, so I will continue this in these blogs!

Two comments from open day:

“I see you are called the apostrophes does this mean you’re linked with the Stationers Company, a subsidiary?”

“Catastrophe’s in Medicine, why do you run a course? Don’t doctors make enough mistakes?”