Entertaining
The Company hosts a number of formal events throughout the year:
The premier function of the year, known as the Livery Dinner, takes place in the third week of December. It is on this
occasion that the Company plays host to the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs as well as other distinguished official guests.
Each Liveryman is entitled to bring a personal guest. At the dinner, the Lord Mayor is presented with a turned memento of
the occasion. This custom dates from 1983, the first of many years when the Lord mayor was presented with a mazer
(a silver-embellished drinking cup of burwood)
turned by Liveryman and Prizewinner Cecil Colyer (father of Penrose Halson, the current Master). In 2005 the Lord Mayor
was presented with a bowl turned from chocolate by Assistant Nicholas Edwards, (illustrated to the left).
The
Gardner Williams Dinner takes place on or near our benefactor's birthday,
24th February, in accordance with his Will, and is paid for entirely out of income from his bequest. All members of the
Livery and the Freedom are invited and there are no outside guests.
The Ladies' Dinner comes shortly before Ascension Day, when the Master's year of office closes. Each member of the Livery is
eligible to attend and invite a guest.
At these Dinners, the Company’s silver treasures and turned wooden cups and ornaments decorate the tables. Also displayed are
items from the renowned Howe collection of treen, and the gilded Company crest set behind the Master's chair.
In addition to the formal dinners, a Court Luncheon is held. This takes place after one of the several meetings of the Court held
during the year. This is an occasion at which hospitality is extended to Masters and Clerks of other Livery Companies,
many of which have long been friends. These often include the "wooden" companies such as the Carpenters and
Furniture Makers who, like the Turners, use wood as their main craft material. Other guests are likely to include representatives
of the armed services and of the engineering institutions, City and Guild officers and so on.
Common Hall
While members of the Company are entitled to attend
"Common Hall"
at the Guildhall twice each year, the Company holds its own "Common Hall" immediately prior to the Gardner Williams Dinner in
February each year. The purpose of the Company's Common Hall is not to vote for the officers of the Company but to allow the
Master and Wardens to report
to the Liverymen and Freemen the details of the Company's activities and achievements throughout the past year and to give an
indication of the objectives and activities for the coming year.
The Patronal Service
As close to 25th November as can be arranged, Turners celebrate the Feast of St Catherine of Alexandria, the Company's patron
saint, at the annual Patronal Festival Service in one of the City churches (usually
St Bride's Fleet Street), followed by a luncheon in
Apothecaries' Hall for
members of the Company and their families and friends.
Catherine was a virgin of noble parentage who suffered martyrdom in Alexandria in 307 AD, but whose history owes more to legend
than to proven facts. Renowned for her learning and for her beauty, she upbraided the Emperor Maximinus for his worship of
false gods.
The angry tyrant, unable to refute her arguments, sent for pagan scholars to argue with her, but they were discomfited.
Catherine was scourged and imprisoned. When the Empress, accompanied by a Roman general and soldiers, went to reason with
her, she converted them all.
Condemned to death by torture on a spiked wheel, she was miraculously saved, the wheel being broken by divine intervention,
but a beheading sword finally proved fatal.
The martyr's body was borne by angels to Mount Sinai, where the Emperor Justinian founded the Convent of St Catherine in the
6th century. In London, the City church of St Katherine Cree, which has a Catherine wheel East window, is dedicated to
her.
So, as our former Clerk A C Stanley-Stone said in his 1925 History, the Turners' Company has as its Patroness "a first
class Saint, with all the necessary legendary qualifications".
In common with all long-standing Livery Companies, the Turners have always had a religious background. The Company has
a Chaplain and Grace is said and sung at all formal dinners.
The annual Patronal Festival church service was one of the few observances of the Company that could, and did, go on without
interruption throughout the Second World War. The tradition of this service commenced in 1913 and from that time, until
1951, the service was held at Saint Helen's church in Bishopsgate. In 1951, the decision was taken to move the service
to the Wren church of St Martin-within-Ludgate, on Ludgate Hill, which was conveniently near Apothecaries' Hall. Between 1959
and 1987 the location of the service changed on a number of occasions but, since 1987, the service has taken place in
St Bride's church in Fleet Street.
