News & Views

The Shrieval Briefing on 10th February 2025 brought together Liverymen and Liverywomen to support the Court of Aldermen's nominee for Sheriff. Robert Hughes-Penney shared his vision for the Shrieval role—supporting the Lord Mayor, strengthening the justice system, and engaging with the Livery community in the lead-up to Common Hall.

Master, Past Masters, Fellow Haberdashers, Liverymen and Liverywomen

Good evening,

Master, thank you for your kind introduction, and so kindly and generously allowing this briefing and reception to take place in the Hall this evening. It is a huge privilege to be here, and I am very grateful to you for your support.

And may I add my own welcome to all our guests this evening, I am enormously encouraged by your interest, your support, and your enthusiasm – thank you!

As you will be aware, I have received the Court of Aldermen’s nomination to stand for election at Common Hall on midsummer’s day as Sheriff of this great City – I am delighted and humbled to have received that nomination, but now the rest is up to you, the Liverymen and Liverywomen of this great City to attend Common Hall and cast you votes appropriately!

Whilst we are probably all aware of the tradition that the Court of Aldermen’s nomination is supported by the electorate; and the other Shrieval candidate, or indeed candidates!, I am hugely conscious that it is the Livery that is the electorate. Accordingly, the uppermost purpose of this evening in my mind is to be very clear of my desire to honour and respect that electorate, by being known, accessible and visible to you all in the run up to Common Hall.

And that is the purpose of this evening; an invitation was extended to each and every Livery Company, and some of the affiliated Livery groupings that I am part of to come to this briefing reception, ahead of the electoral timetable. So, may I thank you for joining me this evening and your interest and support, which means a lot to me.

I am touched by the support of fellow Haberdasher Court members that I see here; and as the Alderman for the Ward of Cheap I am fortunate to have four Livery Halls and another dozen or so companies with offices and storage facilities in my Ward – welcome to my fellow Cheapsiders. It is also lovely to see friends from my Past Masters year group, the Zoomers, the Financial Services Group of companies, including investment managers, the HAC Livery Association and colleagues from Rathbones who are members of a wide range of companies.

By way of introduction and background for those that don’t know me; I was born in Brazil, possibly the first Alderman and potentially the first Sheriff to have that claim, where my father was working for Price Waterhouse. Then after a spell in South Africa we returned to the UK when I was 10 and later I went to the Haberdashers’ Boys’ School for the sixth form, which in many ways is where the connection and interest in the City started.

After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University and passing out of Sandhurst I was commissioned into the 13th/18th Royal Hussars and served in the UK, Canada and Germany before starting work in the City at the end of 1993 – over 31 years ago.

On arriving in the City and seeking to be involved in life outside the office I reached out to the Haberdashers’ Co. and by wonderful serendipity with my last commanding officer and new City CEO both being Haberdashers a place was found for me in the Company. And it’s been a huge privilege to be part of this wonderful Company, that I am sure you all know does such wonderful work, particularly in the education space. In that vein I spent eight years as a governor of Haberdashers’ Girls, chaired the City Civic committee and the Securities committee and served on the charities and finance committees.

And it was through my great friend, Past Master Nigel Branson, former Common Councilman and Sheriff that my interest in serving as an elected member of the Corporation was sparked. This led to eight years as an elected Common Councillor, prior to being elected as an Alderman seven years ago.

Meanwhile, I am fortunate to have enjoyed a career primarily as an investment manager at Rathbones, seeing the business grow over 100-fold from the one I joined, but also spending several years on the Board, executive and management committees of the main operating company. And in that vein can I thank and pay tribute to my colleagues for their encouragement and support, past present and future.

So, what of the Shrieval role? Of course, it is an ancient office, with records indicating it going back to the 8th century, the Sheriffs live at the Old Bailey and look after the comfort of His Majesty’s judges – at lunch and elsewhere. Both my wife, Elspeth and I are very much looking forward to that.

But probably even more importantly is the role of supporting the Lord Mayor. With the Sheriffs taking office in September there is the opportunity to work with two Lord Mayors. And having known the current Lord Mayor, Alastair King since 2004, over 20 years ago, and as a fellow investment manager, and also knowing the Lady Mayoress, or Lance Bombardier Kings’ heart for the military I am sure we will be able to back them as they bring their theme of growth unleashed to a conclusion.

More recently we have become good friends with Dame Susan Langley, the Court’s nomination to be the next Lord Mayor, or Lady Mayor, and her husband Gary. It is not for me to trail their theme or ideas but suffice to say that there are meetings planned in the weeks ahead to ensure we are on the same page, as we all seek to support and promote UK FPS and the growing tech sector. One thing I know Sue has previously spoken of is her desire to support those less privileged, mindful of her own background from the east end. And with my own maternal great grandfather having been a bone, horn and tallow chandler in Stratford, and me being the first person in my family to get a degree I look forward to supporting this.

Besides our support for the Lord Mayor there will also be the opportunity to do one or two things at the Old Bailey; celebrating the Old Bailey as the world’s best known criminal justice court, supporting the justice system and re-employment of prison leavers. I am conscious that my year, subject to election, will coincide with the 10th anniversary of the UN SDGs and no. 16 includes justice for all; so, I am planning a Justice for All event at the start of my year. This will look at justice for the accused, justice for survivors and justice for prison leavers - please look out for that. In addition, and being the only Alderman to have served in the army, and having stood outside St Pauls on London Poppy Day last November it would be great if we could gather wider support for that this year, and last but my no means least is our support for the Sheriffs & Recorders fund; in that vein I shall be inviting each of the Livery Masters to join my wife, Elspeth and I, to come on one of the sponsored walks to each of the London prisons that we shall be arranging.

And so finally, and by way of introduction, may I say that none of this will be possible without support from all of you, but even more importantly from my lovely wife, Elspeth, to whom I am eternally grateful.

So thank you again for coming today, as I said at the top I am keen to be known, visible and accessible to the Livery, the electorate, in the run up to Common Hall, and I look forward to seeing you all there in June. And now may I invite Elspeth to say a few words, and let us please give her a warm welcome.

Thank you,

Robert Hughes-Penney