Anne Thorne was admitted as a Liveryman in 1992 but her connection with the company started a few years before that. We are pleased to celebrate her 30 year connection with the Company here.
The picture above is of Anne with her husband Sir Peter Thorne at an Admission Court dinner. He was formerly Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons. (He was, incidentally, a Cordwainer with long family links to that Company.)
Her admission to the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers came about through her association with Chelsea Instruments. As a Senior Lecturer in the Physics Department of Imperial College, her research field of laboratory astrophysics led her into the development of ultraviolet Fourier transform spectrometry, and she became a consultant to Chelsea Instruments, a spin-off instrumentation company initially based on developing research at Imperial College. The Chairman of this company was a colleague Dr Richard Learner, and the Managing Director was John Wheaton, who worked with us in I.C. for many years as a senior research assistant. The link to WCSIM was Sir Ivor Cohen, who was then Chairman of Remploy, of which Dick Learner was also a director.
The WCSIM Achievement Award for 1990 went to Chelsea Instruments. The photo above is at the Achievement Award dinner in January 1991 and shows the Master, Mr Herrin, presenting the award to John Wheaton, with Anne standing behind Dick Learner and the Deputy Master on the right.
Anne was then invited to give the Minerva Lecture in May 1991. The picture below shows the Master and Ivor Cohen (chairing the lecture) and Anne.
In the 1990’s she served for several years on the Education Committee and attended many of our functions. She said, “I was always most warmly welcomed by the Beadle, as well, of course, by the current Master.” She is delighted to see the number of female liverymen increasing (including Ivor Cohen’s daughter). After she moved out of London in 1997 her attendances became more difficult and less frequent, but she retains many good memories of the Company and is honoured to have been a Liveryman for 30 years.