Summer2013


Towards the end of his Presidency, the Court of our Company showed their appreciation by entertaining Mark to dinner at Girdlers’ Hall. The occasion was unprecedented in that every Court member and all surviving Past Masters were there.


One quality that rings out among the many tributes that I have seen is Mark’s unfailing readiness to hold out a helping hand to anyone who asked for or needed his support. Two then very junior solicitors unknown to Mark at the time tell how he helped them to become members of the City Club, an organisation of which his all but 40 years of membership would have brought him honorary membership had he survived until the end of 2013. Another quality was his equally


unfailing wit. The Company’s table lighter in the shape of an owl went astray after a dinner to an outgoing Master and became an insurance loss. Mark said it was a dinner to the outgoing owl. While President he appeared in the LCJ’s Court to make a farewell speech and speculated as to who the next LCJ might be. Without spelling out names, he asked which Tom (Bingham), Dick (Scott) or Harry (Woolf) it might be. And when resisting a swingeing increase in the fee payable by retired solicitors for keeping their names on the roll, Mark said “There are lies, damned lies and the allocation of overheads”.


Underpinning all Mark’s success was a rock solid family background. He was immensely proud of his wife


Catherine, children Alice and Edward, and granddaughter Anna. Many of us will be there to support them at the Service of Thanksgiving arranged for the Wednesday 9 October at 5.45 pm. Mark was an Honorary Bencher of Inner Temple, but the only fear must be that the Temple Church will be too small to accommodate all of us.


I give the closing words to Sir Robert Finch: “But above all his love of music, his love for the City and his love of laughter were legend. I can honestly say that without Mark I would not have succeeded in the many things I have tried to do. He was truly one of the great men whose loss we shall all feel”. Amen to that!


Court Ladies Tour the Tower


The Court Ladies enjoyed a fascinating Private Tour of the Tower of London before this year’s Annual Guild Service on 20th May. Organised by the Master’s Lady, Jane Roberts (pictured centre) the group then joined other guests for the service in the Chapel Royal of St Peter Ad Vincula, which was followed by dinner at Trinity House.


City Solicitor • Issue 82 • 13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16