Enjoyable evening in the City of London last night.
I was a guest of The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders whose current 'Master' is our old friend Elise Rasmussen.
Elise has various job titles but she is primarily the organiser of the annual Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF), an event she founded in 2008.
Last night's event was a black tie dinner at Drapers' Hall, close to the Bank of England and described as 'one of the most magnificent venues in London'. I wouldn't disagree.
A drinks' reception was followed by dinner that took place in the Livery Hall whose 'vast ceiling is adorned with scenes from Shakespeare’s plays The Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream ...
Marble-columned, galleried, gilded and hung with royal portraits, this is where members of the royal family and other heads of state have dined. No surprise then, that it has appeared on television as Buckingham Palace.
There were 228 guests (according to the seating plan) including several familiar faces, among them Fran Morrison who I have 'known' since I was at university in Aberdeen in the late Seventies.
In those days she was a reporter and presenter on BBC Reporting Scotland, the evening news programme. A decade earlier she was at St Andrews University, graduating (I think) the same year I started secondary school in the town.
We finally met in person after I began working for Forest and Fran was head of corporate communications at British American Tobacco, and it was weird because I felt I knew her already.
She retired from the tobacco industry some time ago but our paths continue to cross (sometimes at Forest events) and there was lots to talk about last night.
Fran's place card described her as a livery 'assistant', a title 'first applied [in 1521] to those members of the Court who were neither Master nor Wardens'.
Seated next to us was another Scot whose card described him as a 'freeman'. Others were identified as a 'liveryman' but the process by which one becomes one or the other was slightly lost on me.
The Master however is the most senior liveryman, and I believe Elise is the first woman ever to hold that position in The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders.
Livery companies, many of them hundreds of years old, are big on ceremony so last night we sang the national anthem and toasted (with port) various people whose names I didn't quite catch.
Another tradition at tobacco livery events is the after dinner snuff-taking. Snuff is passed round in a large silver vessel and guests are invited to take a pinch of the brown powder and inhale.
I noticed that most guests declined to partake but I quite liked it, although I was probably a bit conservative with the amount I inhaled.
During the evening guests were also entertained by Guildhall School pipe scholars, young musicians from the Guildhall School of Music who receive grants from the livery company.
Amid the pageantry, snuff, and music, the most surprising bit of the evening was arguably the identity of the guest speaker – singer and actress Patti Boulaye who brought a welcome dash of glamour to the evening.
It turned out she's a friend of a friend, and the friend of the friend is ... the Master of The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders.
See also: The Worshipful Company of E-Cigarette Makers and E-Liquid Blenders
Above: The magnificent ceiling of the Livery Hall at Drapers' Hall
Below: Livery Hall last night
