On Saturday 18th April 2015 the association held its 149th Anniversary Dinner at Headingley Golf Club. This was the first time that we have used this venue for the anniversary dinner and it seemed to be very popular with the guests, especially as the food choice and quality were judged to be excellent.
Photographs taken during the evening can be found following this article.
The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr. David Congreve, and The Lady Mayoress, Janet Harper J.P. accompanied our President, Andrew Kibler, on the top table. They were joined by Mike Freeman and his wife (Mike is the President of the Hull Association of Engineers), Ian Buxton, President of the Keighley Association of Engineers and Duncan Jagger, the special guest speaker.
Following the meal Andrew Kibler proposed the toast ‘Our Guests‘. He informed the audience that the association was formed one hundred and fifty years ago in 1865 and that to commemorate this anniversary the association had commissioned a Commemorative Plaque which would be presented to Leeds Minster. It is to be mounted in the church and be on permanent display as a reminder of the links between the church and the association. During his speech Andrew went on to quiz the audience with the names and occupations of famous Leeds born folk, ranging from Prime Minister Herbert Asquith to the most famous Fish and Chip fryer, Harry Ramsden. Harry’s nephew was none other than Harry Corbett the creator of the popular children’s ‘Sooty’ puppet. The Lord Mayor responded to the toast and told us at length of his early career in engineering, starting out being an Apprentice Electrical Engineer. He later moved on to Toolmaking and then into Work Study and Planning. He joined Leeds City Council in 1990 and was elected representative for the Beeston ward.
The President presented the prestigious Braime Trophy to last year’s winner, Steve Stacey. Steve is also the Honorary Golf Secretary for the association and arranges the annual Golf Tournament which is held during the summer.
Honorary Toastmaster John Bentley, who is also a Trustee of the association announced the draw of a raffle to benefit the Lord Mayor’s charity which this year is the ‘Leeds Children’s Hospital Fund‘. First prize of a bottle of Scotch was won by John Aldersley and second prize of a bottle of Irish Whiskey was won by Malcolm Murray. The association sponsored the prizes and all proceeds from the raffle were donated to the Lord Mayor’s charity.
After a short interval the guest speaker, Duncan Jagger, entertained the audience with tales from his career involving horses. Anecdotes from his early days in this business about a town parade and the time he was asked to provide a horse for a canal barge pull had the audience laughing out loud, especially when he told us that the horse and trainer accidentally fell into the canal ! Fortunately neither came to harm which is more than can be said for Duncan’s commercial reputation at the time.
After an excellent evening the Toastmaster made his closing remarks and reminded the members and guests to come along to the special 150th Anniversary Dinner next year. For those who may have missed the dinner this year, this was the menu:- Dinner Menu 2015. Don’t miss the dinner next year !!!
Here are a selection of photographs from the evening. Thanks are due to Ian Scholes (Council Member) for taking the photographs during the evening. Click on any of the photos to start a slide show….
