Page 4 - Yearbook issue try out

That was the year

that was...

Where would the world have been without IT and Information

Technologists during these extraordinary times? RAY LONG CB
(Master, 2019-2020) reflects on this most unusual of years in the City

ELL what a year! Neither I nor indeed any
of us could have imagined how it would
Whave turned out. But we can be proud we
as a Livery Company and a profession have done
so much to help one another, our city and indeed
our country as a whole throughout the pandemic.

Just as it is nigh on impossible to read a history of
the reign of Edward VII, a little more than 100 years
ago, without the hindsight of our knowledge of the
subsequent Great War, my installation as Master on
10 October 2019 with the annual service at St
Bartholomew the Great seems now to be part of
another world. That night, at the memorable
Installation Dinner at Haberdashers’ Hall, I
announced my theme for the year would be
“Fellowship”. I could not have imagined what a
relevant theme it would be.

However much you may think you are ready for Annual Dinner; visiting the wonderful Treloar’s
your year as Master, and however much I watched School; and meeting HRH The Princess Royal at
other Masters over the years, nothing can really the Royal Corps of Signals Centenary Service of
prepare one for the extent and pace of the role. Thanksgiving at Salisbury Cathedral.

There was so much in the first few months. Taking I became used quickly to the pattern of meetings
part in the Lord Mayor’s Show and being part of a and social events, and my determination to be
welcoming line at Mansion House as it ended; the strict with myself at the latter soon paid off – I was
Remembrance Day Service at St Paul’s; hosting two to lose almost a stone in weight over the course of
Business Lunches; our Carol Service in December; the first few months! Though I have to confess …
sitting in the Master’s Chair at Court for the one
and only time in January; representing WCIT in the But the storm clouds were gathering. On 9 March I
pancake race outside Guildhall. Then there was the noted in my diary that it “feels like a pivotal week
visit to HMS Collingwood as we finalised our new re Coronavirus/COVID-19; London noticeably
military affiliation, and dinner in the Officers’ Mess quieter and City events starting to be cancelled.”
at St James’s Palace with Commodore David On 16 March, I was at the Hall for the regular
Elford, who signed our agreement with them. We Finance & General Purposes Committee meeting.
had our New Freemen’s Dinner at Goldsmiths’ Hall, As I travelled home that day, I did not realise it
and attended the annual Trial of the Pyx to would be more than six months before I returned
scrutinise new coinage at the same location. And to London. On the evening of 23 March, the Prime
so much more: speaking at the Gresham Society’s Minister announced the country was in lockdown.
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