09 September 2023
On the 9th September, the Clockmakers' Company was called upon to exercise the rights of the Charter, in intercepting a flotilla on the Thames.
At the centre of the flotilla was the Royal Barge Jubilant, carrying representatives of the National Physical Laboratory, and their proposed gift of an optical atomic clock, for the Royal Museums Greenwich.
Drawing alongside Jubilant, the Master Clockmaker hailed the ship and Dr Leon Lobo, head of the National Timing Centre at NPL, quoted the Charter and conducted an inspection of the Clock, flanked by the Senior Warden Keith Scobie-Youngs (wielding a sizeable hammer, ready to smash the clock should it prove to be faulty, badly-made, or deceitful), the Junior Warden Robert Lamb and Consorts, and the Clerk. Happily, the clock proved to be most satisfactory, accurate in the region of a few parts in 1018, and so the Clockmakers joined the flotilla down to Greenwich, where it was presented to the Royal Museums.
