Developing the Company Treasure...

Beginning with three beautiful items... The Chaplain's Candlestick, The Wardens’ Quaich and The Mace...

The Chaplain’s Candlestick

Every Livery Company has a Chaplain but, from its very early days, The Management Consultants’ Company had not only a Chaplain but also one who practised as a management consultant!  

The Reverend WA (Bill) Penney was both an ordained Anglican priest and a management consultant;  few, if any, other Livery Companies could claim to have a Chaplain as one of their own!  Bill was appointed Chaplain and conducted the Guild's first Service in October 1996 at St James Garlickhythe.  He was admitted as a Founder Liveryman in 1997.   He was already somewhat familiar with the traditions of Livery Companies since his wife, Penelope, was headmistress of a well known Haberdashers’ girls’ school.

Bill always worried about getting the formal grace at Livery Dinners wrong and subject to a Spoonerism; instead of blessing the Company ‘root and branch’, he was fearful of saying ‘boot and ranch’!   Michael Jeans decided that he would donate The Chaplain’s Candlestick that would be engraved ‘boot and ranch’ and placed before the Chaplain at dinners that he attended.

Bill ‘retired’ in 2018 following the sad death of his wife but hopefully the tradition may continue.  At the Company Service in 2018, it was carried by the Clerk as she processed and then placed on the altar – perhaps this might become a tradition?

MHVJ: 06.06.19

The Wardens’ Quaich

When Michael Jeans demitted office as Immediate Past Master in October 2003, it would be the first time that he had not been a member of the Court of Wardens since the Company’s inception in October 1992; there was a personal reason for this, but his period of office as a member of the Court of Wardens was unlikely ever to be surpassed.  Michael decided that he would like to mark the occasion by giving a gift to the Company: The Wardens’ Quaich.

The Quaich was specially commissioned from Searle & Co in Royal Exchange; it is solid silver and prominently hallmarked on its rim.  It is engraved ‘The       Wardens’ Quaich’   Michael requested that the Quaich be presented annually to a member of the Company who had given outstanding service over time; he also stipulated that it should not be awarded to a member of Court but to an ‘ordinary’ member. 

It is for the Court of Wardens to decide upon the recipient and not the Master or the whole Court of Assistants.

The first recipient in 1994 was Gordon Stoker and, in January 2015, Gordon arranged an informal lunch in Ironmongers’ Hall to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Quaich.  

Annual lunches have been held ever since then; they are informal and the logic behind the invitees remains Gordon’s secret!  A quaich was a celebration drinking cup for whisky; thus, at the end of the annual lunch, all of those present sip whisky from the Quaich but using individual straws for reasons of ‘hygiene’!

The Mace

Lt Col Brian O'Rorke - Master 1996-97 commissioned the production of a "Mace" for the Company, presented at the Master's Dinner, 10th May 2000.    See article by PM Mike Jeans  https://wcomc.org/2018Oct31-1

Notes on The Company's Treasure contributors were:  Past Master Michael Jeans,  Past Master Geoff Llewellyn and Past Master Edward Sankey

MHVJ: 06.06.19