The start of the New Year, and what a start! On The 10th January 2012 the Master admitted five new Freemen to
the Company. They are Michael Topliss, Mrs Sara Autton, Sir Gary Hickenbottom, Simon Jeffreys and Anthony Kindred.
Michael Topliss is a retired Metropolitan Police Officer and a Wandsman at St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a member of the Queenhithe Ward Club.
Sara Autton is a Bakery Technologist and is the Technical Director of Fermex International, a supplier of yeasts and improvers to the UK baking industry; she is also Vice Chairman of the British Society of Baking and on the technical committee of ABIM (the Association of Bakery Ingredient Manufacturers). In her spare time she is the Choir Director at the Amersham Free Church.
Sir Gary Hickinbottom, the Honourable Mr Justice Hickinbottom, comes from a family of Bakers but chose the law as his profession. Starting his career as a solicitor, he is only the fourth member of that profession to be appointed to the High Court Bench and even more of a rarity as he started his judicial career as a Parking Adjudicator.
Simon Jeffreys is a Chartered Accountant and is the Chief Operating Officer for the Wellcome Trust. He was formerly the Chief Administration Officer for Fidelity International and a partner in PwC.
Anthony Kindred is a Master Baker and a former student of the National Bakery School at the London South Bank University. He runs the family bakery in Herne Hill, was President of the London and South East Region of the National Association of Master Bakers in 2006/2007 (LASER) and is currently Director of the National Association.
We welcome them all to the Company.
Seen in the image from left to right are Anthony Kindred, Michael Topliss, Sara Autton, the Master, Simon Jeffreys and Sir Gary Hickinbottom.