London’s Lord Mayor Is “King of the City”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 868, 11 January 1930, Page 18

London’s Lord Mayor Is “King of the City”

HONDON’S new Lord Mayor, Sir William Waterlow, is a popular figure in the mighty capital where the whole of his business career has been spent. Trained as a solicitor at Cambridge, where he played “Rugger” for Trfciity College, Sir William later followed the family bent and joined the well-known printing firm of Waterlow and Sons which, for generations, has stamped its mark on

many an English Government Treasury note. Descended from an old Belgian family which came over from Lille to London three hundred years ago, the new Lord Mayor has been Alderman for nearly 16 years in the Cornhill Ward with Which the family has been connected for over a century. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were members of the city corporation. Sir Sydney Waterlow being Lord Mayor in 1872. At 58, Sir William is as keen and enthusiastic a sportsman as ever he was, golf and tennis having now ousted “Rugger” from his activities. As Lord Mayor he will be king of London for a year. No other municipal body shares the traditions and peculiar dignity of the city corporation of London, whose principal administrative body consists of the Lord Mayor, 26 aldermen and 206 common Councillors comprising

the court of common council. The Lord Mayor is chosen annually by the aldermen from two aldermen nominated by the common hall. In the civil government of the city of London the Lord Mayor is representative of Royalty. In fact, legally speaking, the King of England can only enter the city of London l>y permission of the Lord Mayor, who in olden days used to hand over the keys of the city to the Sovereign at Temple Bar. The Lord Mayor receives an allowance of £ 10,000 a year, with the ’se of the mansion house, furniture, carriages and other appurtenances of his high office. At the moment there Is before the general purposes committee a complete scheme for the, renovation of the old residence, fears for the safety of which have been very real until a short time ago. When Sir William Waterlow was escorted by the gorgeous guildsnen (the representatives of the ancient trading companies In the city) In all his civic pomp and power, to the law courts to be sworn in on November 9, the Londoner on the street divided his affection between the Lord Mayor and the “Show,” which still retains much of its mediaeval glory. London is always new and always old. Although its first Lord Mayor dates from 1486, the famous pageant Is still one of the most interesting spectacles to be seen in England. While the crowd of cynical ers melt into the November dusk and the twentieth century once mdre resumes its sway in the streets, within the grey old walls of the guildhall mediaeval still reigns supreme for a few hours longer. The banquet hall, capable of holding from 6,000 to 7,000 people, is a beautiful room some 150 feet long, with a glorious timber roof and vast Gothic windows at each end, filled with painted glass. The picturesque old smoky cressets, chain-dropped lamps and iron sconces of bygone days have been replaced by thousands of lights which run like chords of gold along the tracery of the architecture. Rude drinking-horns, oaken peg-cups and wooden trenchers of old have given place to glittering gold plate and sparkling cut glass which, amid a profusion of flowers, grace every table in dazzling array. But the bill of fart: is still written in the tongues of turtles and turkeys; and the Lord Mayor’s feast is on se grand a scale as to require the services of 20 cooks and the slaughter ot 40 turtles, not to mention the 11 tons of other rich viands —venison, comfits and all! It Is at the Lord Mayor's banquet that the most important political speech of the year is made. This year, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, fresh from his successes at Washington, figured as the chief guest for tb* first time. Five years ago the Prime Minister relinquished office just six days before the hanquer, and it was Mr. Baldwin who succeeded him in time to sit at the Lord Mayor's right hand. • H