Lord Mayor's Show An Ancient Pageant

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28436, 16 November 1957, Page 10

Lord Mayor's Show An Ancient Pageant

{From the London Correspondent of "The Press")

LONDON, November 9. The Lord Mayor’s Show, one of London’s most spectacular annual events, is in parts the nearest approach to a coronation procession it is possible to see in London. Detachments of the Queen’s Household Cavalry and Horse Guards take part, and the ornate gold gilt coach bringing up the rear and carrying the new Lord Mayor 4)f London is the highlight. In several ways the show this year had added significance. The Lord Mayor’s coach entered itsthird century of existence and the -new Mayor, Sir Denis Truscott, Aiderman of the Ward of Dowgate, at the age of 49, is one of the youngest Lord Mayors for many The Lord Mayor’s Show has beep held in the City of London since 1215 though the first Lord Mayor was elected in 1192. In earlier years the procession was water-borne along the Thames, and later the Lord Mayor rode on horseback. The first time a coach was used was in 1711 because in the previous year the Lord Mayor fell from his horse. The earliest procession for which a detailed description can be found is for the procession of 1553 in the diary of Henry Maclyn. He described “the craftes of London in their best levery with trumpets blohying and the whats playing.” This year’s show, though much larger, followed a similar pattern. The “craftes” represented this year were the printing and paper trades. Every ye§r there is a theme for the floats in the procession and printing was last featured in 1929 when Sir William Waterlow was Lord Mayor. On that occasion the present Lord Mayor was a pupil at the London School of Printing and appeared on one of the floats. Sir Denis Truscott is the greatgrandson of a man who walked from Truro, in Cornwall, to London in 1824 to start a career as a printer. Today Sir Denis is the chairman and joint managing

director of a printing business which his forbear founded. Before him his grandfather and uncle have been Lord Mayors. Educated at Rugby and Cambridge, Sir Denis Truscott is Under Warden of the Stationers’ and Newspaper Makers’ Company. The Stationers’ Company this year celebrates its 400th birthday, which makes it doubly appropriate that the Lord Mayor’s Show was devoted to printing and paper. Residents and visitors to London seldom realise it, but the subject which was the feature of the show this year is the city’s biggest industry. Every week more than 90 million copies of morning and evening newspapers and nearly 19 million copies of Sunday papers are printed in London. Over 8000 tons of newsprint a week go into making these papers.