Past Master Mr Andrew Trapnell was installed on 19th April 2023. The Master is elected for a year and presides at all our functions. 

Andrew has been a member of the Fletcher’s Company for more than 30 years. His wife Melanie is also in the Livery of the Fletchers and their sons, Robert and Oliver, are Freemen of the Company.

Andrew is a senior HR professional and an Associate of the Pensions Management Institute (APMI) and initially spent 10 years in Professional Services firms working for PwC and EY. This was followed by a 30-year career in Human Resources within Financial Services, principally at Morgan Stanley. His experience combines strategic leadership within a complex organisation with solid experience of remuneration and reward, governance and all aspects of HR management. This included advising Boards and Committees including advice to the Remuneration Committee Chair. As well as working in London Andrew spent 8 years working in Hong Kong and Tokyo, including as Head of HR for the Asia region. Retiring from Morgan Stanley Andrew has been a senior HR Consultant and Pension Plan Trustee.

Andrew is a member of the Worshipful Company of Human Resource Professionals, the Aldersgate Ward Club, City Livery Club and the City of London Club. He is also a member of the PCC for the parish of Sunninghill and South Ascot, one of a number of Charitable activities.

Andrew is a keen archer and is a member of The Royal Toxophilite Society. He has more interests than time which include golf, reading (particularly history and science fiction and fantasy), strategy and board games, puzzles, gardening and a long list of other things!!

He lives in Ascot Berkshire.

Past Master Mr Philip Shears KC was installed on 26th April 2022. The Master is elected for a year and presides at all our functions. 

LEYS SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE

 NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY LLB

 ST EDMUNDS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE LLB (POST GRADUATE)

CAPTAIN OF COLLEGE FIRST (EVER) BOAT

MEMBER OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY UNDERWATER EXPLORATION GROUP

ACTOR AND DIRECTOR FOR ADC THEATRE AND MUMMERS

ACTOR AND DIRECTOR AND CHAIR OF PROGRESS THEATRE READING

CALLED TO THE BAR 1972 MIDDLE TEMPLE , MIDLAND AND OXFORD CIRCUIT

CHAMBERS 1 ESSEX COURT , THEN 2 CROWN OFFICE ROW BECOMING 7 BEDFORD ROW

SPECIALIST AREA CRIMINAL LAW , SERIOUS CRIME , HOMICIDE , SERIOUS FRAUD ( A NOMINATED COUNSEL FOR THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE)

APPOINTED QUEENS COUNSEL 1996

APPOINTED ASSISTANT RECORDER 1987

APPOINTED RECORDER 1990 TO 2017

ACTIVITIES :

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL LONDON YACHT CLUB , COMMODORE 2008/9 , TRUSTEE .. CURRENT

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON

MEMBER AND PAST VICE COMMODORE OF THE BAR YACHT CLUB

Past Master Mr Philip Shears KC was installed on 26th April 2022. The Master is elected for a year and presides at all our functions. 

LEYS SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE

 NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY LLB

 ST EDMUNDS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE LLB (POST GRADUATE)

CAPTAIN OF COLLEGE FIRST (EVER) BOAT

MEMBER OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY UNDERWATER EXPLORATION GROUP

ACTOR AND DIRECTOR FOR ADC THEATRE AND MUMMERS

ACTOR AND DIRECTOR AND CHAIR OF PROGRESS THEATRE READING

CALLED TO THE BAR 1972 MIDDLE TEMPLE , MIDLAND AND OXFORD CIRCUIT

CHAMBERS 1 ESSEX COURT , THEN 2 CROWN OFFICE ROW BECOMING 7 BEDFORD ROW

SPECIALIST AREA CRIMINAL LAW , SERIOUS CRIME , HOMICIDE , SERIOUS FRAUD ( A NOMINATED COUNSEL FOR THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE)

APPOINTED QUEENS COUNSEL 1996

APPOINTED ASSISTANT RECORDER 1987

APPOINTED RECORDER 1990 TO 2017

ACTIVITIES :

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL LONDON YACHT CLUB , COMMODORE 2008/9 , TRUSTEE .. CURRENT

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON

MEMBER AND PAST VICE COMMODORE OF THE BAR YACHT CLUB

 I have now had plenty of time to reflect on my year as Master; its highs and its lows. I am sure I speak for every Past Master in acknowledging the enormous honour and responsibility I felt transferred to me as the Master’s badge and chain was placed around my neck at the Installation Ceremony and my aspiration to do my very best for the Fletchers’ Company in the year ahead. The year went by in a flash, but there are a number of enduring memories I will always treasure:

The excitement of my two young sons, dressed for the first time in black tie, as they attended the Installation Dinner

 Presenting Awards to Archers

Presenting the awards to the winning archers in the various competitions at the Royal Tox and Lilleshall, but most of all having the chance to speak with the competitors and understand how much the opportunity to compete meant to them and their aspirations for the future

The Master’s Holiday

The Master’s Holiday in Guernsey and in particular standing in the magical ruins of Castle Cornet for the noonday cannon, the wonderful evening at Auberge with its stunning clifftop views off Jerbourg Point and the saturated and bedraggled return of the group who braved the RIB excursion that choppy Sunday morning, whilst the rest of us visited Victor Hugo’s house or made candles.

And all that Jazz

The jazz evening at our Hall; a less formal but convivial occasion and my attempt at trying something different that departed from the traditional black-tie dinner.

The Ladies Banquet

The Ladies Banquet at Grocers’ Hall, always a special evening when the Mayoral Civic Party is in attendance, but the serendipity of the date with a historic Fletchers’ Dinner at the same venue and my own and the Lord Mayor’s link with the Grocers’ making that evening particularly resonant.

Sharing my year

And finally, the overwhelming support and camraderie of fellow Fletchers, new and old friends in the wider Livery movement and my family. Being able to share my year with so many people was a key factor in making the year so special.

 A Moment of Peace

 Amongst all the pomp and ceremonial of a master’s year – plus the dinners – there is one moment of peace that I treasure. That is, representing the Company alongside 100 plus other masters at the beginning of November to lay a small cross in the Field of Remembrance at the memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral gardens. This was followed by two minutes silence and then dispersing, also in silence, back to the bustling City outside the railings.  On such simple and poignant occasions, as on the noisier ones, it was always an honour to represent the Fletchers.

The First woman to be Master of The Fletchers - an historical moment

I have so many memories of my incredible year as Master but foremost among them was of deep gratitude and pride at having the opportunity to represent the Company, the first woman moreover, but also apprehension that I might fall short of the expectations of my fellow Fletchers who had shown me such support and encouragement.    The year was already destined to be different as Farmers’ and Fletchers’ Hall was due to close for redevelopment, so my Installation Dinner was held at Vintners’ Hall with our annual Thanksgiving Service held beforehand across the road at St James Garlickhythe, an appropriate start to the year I felt.   Another innovation was holding an Advent Carol Service at St Vedast-alias-Foster lead by my Hon Chaplain, Rev’d Dr Alan McCormack who set the scene for the lead up to Christmas. 

The opportunity to visit a range of venues

The range of venues I visited representing the Fletchers could not have been more diverse from the Great Twelve Livery Halls to dinner in the nave of Southwark Cathedral with the Launderers’ Company, overseen by Doorkins Magnificat, the resident Cathedral cat!   Lunch with the Gunmakers at their home, The Proof House in Aldgate located, since the 17thC outside the City walls for fear of explosions was a surprise in every sense as guests were called to dine by the firing of a gun!  I was especially proud to have visited, as Master, Archery GB at Lilleshall, Stoke Mandeville, Blind Veterans at Ovingdean and, of course, The Royal Tox and to meet many archers whom I already knew as Hon Almoner of the Company.    The two great City services at St Paul’s Cathedral, the United Guilds and the (then) Sons of the Clergy (now Clergy Support Trust) remind one of the significance of the Livery movement and attending as Master is a special experience.  

The Annual Livery Weekend in Ironbridge

Early in the Master Fletcher’s year is the annual Livery Weekend at Ironbridge which is a very well organised couple of days exploring the museum, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and surrounding area, but importantly giving Masters the opportunity of meeting their fellow Masters whom they will meet many times during the year in office.   This event leads to the formation of that year’s Past Masters’ Association, in my case the Great Thirteen, and this group of people then meet during each subsequent year effectively to reminisce on their special years, a pleasant way of keeping the memories alive.

The Masters Holiday

The Master’s Weekend away is possibly the highlight of the year for most Masters and mine to Malta and Gozo was no exception.   Having visited the island a couple of times to recce the possibilities – and with the advantage of details of a previous visit by the Guild of Freemen – I was truly delighted, and immensely relieved, that our trip was a great success. 

A further highlight for me was the fact that, purely by chance, my husband Richard was installed as Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company three weeks after my installation which, most fortuitously, gave me a City ‘home’ in Goldsmiths’ Hall for the year!  In conclusion, I return to where I began and reiterate how proud and grateful I am of having had the opportunity to serve as Master of such a distinguished Company.

Arnott, whose origins and paternity have not to date been discovered, was one of the more colourful characters in the Company’s history. On 2 July 1784 he, then trading as a silk-mercer in Birchin Lane, off Cornhill, not far from the George and Vulture, was admitted to the freedom and livery of the Fletchers. He evidently soon became an established member: in October 1792, his son William was admitted as an apprentice Fletcher, and by the following January Arnott himself was a member of the Court. Now, however, disaster struck his business and on 23 May 1794 the Lloyd’s Evening Post reported that he had been declared bankrupt. It is possible that his fortunes recovered, for in October 1802 he was elected Renter Warden, and after serving the then customary two-year term, he advanced to Upper warden.

By 1805, he had been appointed Keeper of the Monument, a post granted by the corporation to an elderly citizen who had fallen on hard times. While the post itself carried a stipend of only £20 per annum, the keeper could increase this tenfold by admission charges, and the sale of descriptive pamphlets. It was customary for the keepers to express their gratitude to the City for their appointment in these pamphlets, and Arnott duly did so:

"My Lord and Gentlemen. Permit me to add a few lines, with the account of the Monument, to you; under whose favour and protection I remain with all due respect and gratitude your devoted servant Samuel Arnott. Monument 20th March, 1805.

Full threescore years life's various scenes I've past,

And Providence has fix’d me here at last

Within those ancient walls to find repose,

From all the sorrow that Misfortune knows:

With thankfulness to pass my latest hour,

With gratitude proclaim kind Friendship’s power;

Whilst life remains God's mercy to record,

And pray my friends may gain a blest reward.”

Clearly, Arnott had a talent for rhyming couplets, which a few years later he would also put to use in composing the texts of four songs, to be sung to the traditional tunes ‘The Cobbler’, ‘The Roast Beef of Old England’ and ‘Rule Britannia’, for the Fletchers’ four annual court dinners. He presented a bound copy of these four songs which he had had printed on 26 January 1818 and just under three years later, in December 1820, he added a further song, dying not long after.     

(Sources: Fletchers Company, Court Minutes; Lloyd’s Evening Post; S. Arnott, Description of the Monument)

Our Past Master, Professor Anne Curry was installed on 20 April 2021. The Master is elected for a year and presides at all our functions.

Past Master, Mr Stuart Robbens was installed on 21 April 2020. The Master is elected for a year and presides at all our functions.

Past Master Mr Duncan Garland was installed on 15 April 2019. The Master is elected for a year and presides at all our functions.