Primary Links:

Upcoming Events
User login

Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club, Feb 5th 2013

On February 5th, 2013 fifty-two members of the C&O Society, including two of our most senior members, Hugh Wilkinson (King’s Cambridge, 1946) and Doreen Simmons (Girton Cambridge, 1950), and seventeen guests attended a dinner in the Tokyo Club to welcome, as our newly appointed President, the new British Ambassador, HE Mr Tim Hitchens (Christ’s Cambridge, 1980) and his wife, Sara (Christ’s Cambridge, 1981). We were also honoured with the presence of HIH Princess Takamado (Girton Cambridge, 1972), who gave the toast to our new president, after which we were treated to a splendid six-course dinner impeccably prepared and served by the Tokyo Club staff.

Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 3Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 3

A number of those present recalled Tim and Sara Hitchens from an earlier posting to Tokyo, when Tim, as a more junior member of the British Embassy staff, reported to another Cambridge graduate and staunch member of the Society, who subsequently became British Ambassador to Japan, Sir Stephen Gomersall. By a happy coincidence Sir Stephen happened to be in Tokyo on a business trip, and so was able to attend the dinner. In his after-dinner acceptance speech, Tim Hitchens spoke fondly of his time at Christ’s Cambridge. He had had the privilege of spending one of his years in the very rooms occupied centuries earlier by the blind poet, John Milton, as evidenced by words crudely carved on one of the room walls – “John Milton lived here”. It was, of course, at Christ’s that Tim and Sara met.

Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 5Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 5

Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 4Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 4

Following the President’s speech, nine lucky ladies, their names chosen out of a hat, were the recipients of the table flower arrangements. This concluded the formal part of the evening. Those with the time and the fortitude then proceeded to the adjacent area for after dinner-drinks (including, to the delight of many, port) as a fitting finale to a very pleasant evening.

Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 2Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 2

Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 1Welcome dinner for new C&O President HE Mr Tim Hitchens and his wife. Tokyo Club - 1

Robert Hirst, St John’s Cambridge, 1967
Posted in | Submitted by huw.williams on Wed, 2013-02-06 09:00.
login to post comments