Wow! David Patient asked me to provide a foreword for his book on a pet topic of mine, commercial Thames boats, and I just received the finished product:
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Sailing Through Life
Watercolours From Thurso, The Thames & Tahiti
Elisabeth and I like the artist William Alister Macdonald a lot, having chosen his work to grace our invitation cards celebrating our connections with the Thames and Thames sailing barges. But there is a frisson of imposter syndrome when you’re asked to write a foreword to a book for an artist you like a lot, but on whom you are no expert. Such was the case when Ian Macdonald asked me to provide a foreword for his book about his great-great-uncle William Alister Macdonald.
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Thames Day
I had long lamented that we need to celebrate the Thames’ connection with the City forcibly each year as part of the Totally Thames Festival each September. We lit upon World Rivers Day, the fourth Sunday of every September as most appropriate, keeping our tradition yet celebrating with all the other cities of the world.
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Article: The Thames is a gateway to growth
Lord Mayor’s View Of The Thames – Forthcoming On Sunday, 30 June 2024, Staines
If you’d like to join us:
Continue readingMan-Groves Or Just Man-Flew
Yes, a misspelling, should just be mangroves, but got up quite early at a man-ly hour and found myself kayaking in the Abu Dhabi mangroves around 05:30 in the morning.
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“Hierarchy Of Purpose”
Remarks to: the South Georgia Heritage Trust on the occasion of the return of the crow’s nest from Shackleton’s Quest after its three year tour and return to All Hallows By The Tower on Thursday, 7 September, before a dinner at Trinity House, with a toast to ‘The Boss’ and a dram before heading home.
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The Watery Business Of Heritage
Remarks to: the Company of Watermen & Lightermen‘s Freemen’s Lunch, Friday, 18 November 2022, Watermen’s Hall
Master, Wardens, Court members, fellow Freemen:
I may be our Master’s worst nightmare, a sailor with an audience who believes they might want to hear his nautical tales.
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Sheriffs Ahoy
At 10:15 on Friday, 1 October 2021, at Temple Pier, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman William Russell, piped away his two Sheriffs, Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli and Chris Hayward CC. Having completed an extraordinary two-year term of office, the first time since 1228 AD, the two Sheriffs boarded the City of London Corporation Thames Waterman cutter to be rowed away downriver and out to sea by a rowing crew under the command of Jon Averns, Director of Markets & Consumer Protection [don’t worry, they were safely ashore at Tower Pier about 11:00].
Perfectly Normal?!
Remarks to: the Company Of Watermen & Lightermen, on paddle steamer Elizabethan, on 8 July 2021.
Master, Wardens, Fellow Freemen, Ladies & Gentlemen. Thank you Master for inviting me to join our company on this evening, as we pay tribute to the immense service Colin and his team have given us over the past quarter of a century.
People in the livery sometimes ask why I am a craft-owning freeman of the Watermen & Lightermen. I am proud to say as a sailor and rower that water runs in my veins, and that having owned a Thames sailing barge, the Lady Daphne, for over two decades, some of that water in my veins definitely comes from the Thames. In fact, next week, I’m giving a lecture to the Guildhall Historical Association on the economic history of the Thames, the lighters, and the barges.
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