Installation Speech of New Master, Peter Cheese
19/01/2026
Wardens, Visiting Masters and Wardens, Liverymen, Ladies & Gentlemen.
Thank you, Immediate Past Master, Peter Cheese, for the way in which you have proposed that toast to the Company, and thank you all for the way in which you have received it.
I took wine earlier with 17 new Liverymen whom we clothed today. We now have 41 members of the Livery, which is a clear indication of how engaged our members are with this Worshipful Company of Human Resource Professionals.
I stress Worshipful Company. I was a founding member of the original Guild which was created in 2014, and I was a Warden when we achieved Company Without Livery status. So now I am particularly honoured to be the first Master to be actually elected and installed by the Worshipful Company of Human Resource Professionals.
I feel I have contributed to that progression in some way, of course, but only in a tiny, tiny way compared to the efforts put in by some other Company members, not least eleven Past Masters and their consorts, two Clerks, the Clerking team, dozens of Court Assistants, committee members and trustees, and the odd Alderman here and there. Too many to go through by name, but please be assured that your hard work is greatly appreciated. It has been a huge team effort over the past twelve years, and as your current team captain I call for a huge round of applause.
Of course, the work doesn’t stop there. We have another big milestone to reach very soon, and this will be my primary focus in my year as Master. (When they tell you, don’t worry, the last guy has done all the hard work, you can take it easy, never believe a word of it!)
Here’s the milestone: on 16th April 2027, the Lord Mayor of London and the Court of Alderman will meet in The Mansion House to decide whether or not to gr ant the Worshipful Company of HR Professionals its “Letters Patent”. A Letters Patent is a rather grand document, inscribed and beautifully illustrated by hand on parchment, with absolutely no input from Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude, which recognises us formally as a Livery Company in the City of London. It’s like our Birth Certificate. It grants our Liverymen specific constitutional rights within the City, such as the right to vote in the elections for Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs. And it formally establishes our succession number in the grand list of Livery Companies, which is, as I’m sure you know, 114. (I sense a new tattoo coming on here!)
Put 16th April in your diary now because on the admittedly massive assumption that we are granted our Letters Patent on 16th April, we shall that very evening be holding a celebratory banquet – an unmissable celebratory banquet – at The Mansion House, in white tie, with 200 guests, with trumpeters, with Masters of other Livery Companies, with Aldermen, and with the Lord Mayor himself!
16th April: I appreciate this unfortunately clashes with the first day of Middlesex’s crucial third match in the County Championship, the practice day for the Chinese Grand Prix and Magic Mike Live at Leicester Square, but I hope you will forego those and join us at The Mansion House for our unmissable celebratory banquet. Early Bird discounted tickets for this unmissable celebratory banquet will be going on sale on our website on 8 October.
Now, at this point in the proceedings, the Master would traditionally attempt to impress you with news of the company new 3-year plan (latest draft on its way to Court members on Friday) or the new Employment Support Group that our Senior Warden, Heather Greatrex, has set up (which helps those of us out of work and seeking employment and met earlier today) et cetera, et cetera, but our Clerk has warned me severely about breaking our new speechmaking rule: ‘the number minutes must be in single figures’, so instead I’ll quietly direct you to our excellent website for details of those and many other exciting projects that will be coming your way over the coming year.
However (audible groans from the Clerk), I do want to talk briefly about the C-word. I don’t know what you’re thinking but I mean of course, Charity. Someone once said that Charity is that virtue which may justly be denominated the distinguishing feature of a liveryman’s heart, and indeed it is one of our Company’s core objectives.
So I want to promote a scheme we established a few years ago which is that of ‘regular giving’, that is making a regular, say monthly, contribution to our Charitable Trust. We have 280 members, but fewer than 10% of us make a regular donation. All we want is a direct debit for a few pounds each month. My renewed efforts to persuade you to do this will go under the banner “One Day’s Pay”. It is what it is says on the tin: if you are in employment, I’d like you to think of your annual salary, divide it 365 to get one day’s pay; but that’s not what we want every month from you, we want one day’s pay per year, so once you’ve divided it by 365 to get one day’s pay, divide it again by 12 to give you a monthly figure, which I assure you will be in low double figures, and set up a direct debit. You can do this tomorrow morning straight after you’ve bought your Early Bird tickets to the unmissable celebratory banquet. On the same website, go to the Members’ section and donate, or if you are not a member but want to help, click the Donate button at the top of the homepage. Get your calculator out and away you go. One Day’s Pay: a tiny amount, but it will make a huge difference to someone out there less fortunate than us who relies on our charity.
That’s the business agenda out of the way (muffled cheers from the Clerk). All that remains is for me to set out my ‘pleasure agenda’. This is a series of sporting and leisure activities I plan to undertake over the next twelve months to raise money for our charity, which I feel duty bound to do as I’ve hijacked the usual April fundraising dinner for our unmissable celebratory banquet.
I say pleasure agenda: it was a pleasure agenda until I asked my partner and consort, Emma, to get involved, and it has now quickly evolved into what I would call a year of physical torture. I myself had some great ideas like a sponsored pub crawl over the South Downs, volunteering at the UK leg of the Tour de France as it comes South, and watching cricket at each of the 18 county grounds around the country. Emma has edited this list a little, and we now have me cycling the length of the South Downs, abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower in our home town of Portsmouth, and running from The Oval cricket ground to Lord’s.
Once we’ve had a bit of a ding dong about this list – I mean, come to a mutual agreement – I’ll let you know what I’m up for and how you can sponsor me.
In the meantime, thank you once again for electing me as your Master. It is an immense privilege, for which I am truly honoured. I have a first-rate team to support me, and was delighted earlier this evening to install Heather Greatrex, Aaron Albury and Steve Cave as my Wardens. I also have a Court, seven committees and groups, whose chairs and members do a huge amount of work to keep the Company running, alongside the trustees of our Charitable Trust. I also have the best Clerking team in the City in Karen, Debs and Mary.
I hope we can all make the most of my year, together. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you have been listening, thank you!
Richard Higginson
Chartered FCIPD
Master 2026-27