Dear LMA Members,
I am delighted to inform you that HRH The Princess Royal has kindly agreed to continue as Patron of the Lady Masters Association for a further three years. I do hope we will be able to entice her to one of our events in due course. Any suitable suggestions, welcome.
The committee are working hard on the website and it is all but complete and should be up and running by the Autumn. However, it may not be quite ready for you to apply for tickets to our 10th Anniversary lunch on October 6th and full details can be found in this newsletter. We are holding it in the delightful Innholders Hall and because the numbers are limited to 87, at this stage, we will not be including guests. However, if numbers are low (which I jolly well hope they aren’t), then we will send out a further notice. We are only offering two courses because the Committee felt that most people would prefer this and the cost is therefore reduced as well. Yippee!
Lord Mayor’s Show 2025
You should all have received details of our float in the Lord Mayor’s Show, which we are sharing with the City Livery Club. I realise that many of you will be representing your own Livery Companies in the show, but if your Company is giving it a miss this year, do consider joining us. We are delighted to be supporting Dame Susan Langley and she is hoping to entice 697 women to take part! Arrangements have been made for an 8 seater buggy for those who wish to join in but are not able to walk the distance. Let us know if you need any further information.
Wardens Evening 2025
This year’s Wardens’ evening once again proved a great success, with 36 future Masters attending with support from 12 past Masters. We have already booked the Members Room at the Guildhall for May 18th 2026. My sincere thanks to Hilary Lindsay and Pam Taylor for organising the evening and to Jane Anderson who acted as moderator. Our speakers were Virginia Bond and Julia Sibley. It is an excellent way of helping would-be Masters with any queries they may have, and they do have them!
Forthcoming Events
Another date for the 2026 diary is the AGM which is being held on April 20th. We are also holding our annual lunch at Ironmongers on March 2nd and, working backwards, arranging a zoom talk for the cold winter months.
Another event in the planning is a talk on November 17th 2025 given by Prof. Dame Athene Donald on her book ‘Not just for the boys’, encouraging young women to go into STEM subjects. We will be offering wine and canapes afterwards.
Penrose Halsen and I are also looking at a visit to Wizardry in Wood – the Turners’ celebration of wood turning and wood art – on October 31st. This will be followed by lunch locally.
All these events will be on the website and an announcement of its launch will be made as soon as possible.
It just remains for me to wish you all a very relaxed and happy rest of the summer and let’s hope it doesn’t continue to melt us all over the next month or so.
Best wishes,
Georgie Gough
CHAIRMAN