Thursday 10 July 2008 afternoon ceremony

Sir David Brewer (LLD)

Sir David is best known as the Lord Mayor of the City of London in 2005-2006.

He grew up in Hampstead, went to St Paul’s School, and now lives in Westminster. He started his career in insurance in 1959 with Sedgwick and, in 1976, he went to Tokyo to open the Sedgwick Group’s Japan office, living there for three years. He set up the Group office in China in 1981 and obtained the first broker’s authorisation for Sedgwick in 1993. He opened their representative office in Mumbai in 1986 and has travelled regularly in Asia and, in particular, to China, which he has visited over 100 times. He is Non-Executive Vice-Chairman of Marsh Limited, the company which bought Sedgwick.

Sir David is Chairman of the China-Britain Business Council, and a Vice President of the Great Britain-China Centre. He is a member of the Court of Assistants of the Merchant Taylors’ Company; also a member of the Court of Assistants of the Blacksmiths’ Company; and of the Insurers’ Company; an Honorary Liveryman of the most recently formed (No 108) Worshipful Company of Security Professionals; a member of the Parish Clerks’ Company; an Honorary Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn; a Treasurer of the Sons of the Clergy; and a Governor of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is President of the London Cornish Association.

Sir David is a member of the London Symphony Orchestra Advisory Council, and a Director of the City of London Sinfonia. He was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London in April 2008. He is married to Tessa and has two daughters, Olivia and Gabriella. For recreation he enjoys music (especially opera and choral music), mechanical gardening, chocolate and paronomasia.

Listen to Sir David Brewer’s speech here.

Jonathan Dimbleby (LLD)

Jonathan Dimbleby was born in 1944. He was educated at Charterhouse School and at University College London where he read Philosophy and where he is a Fellow.

Jonathan is a writer, broadcaster and filmmaker. As a reporter for ITV’s This Week programme he covered crises, conflicts and disasters in more than 80 countries. In 1973 he won BAFTA’s Richard Dimbleby Award for his coverage of the famine in Ethiopia.

He was the first presenter of BBC’s On The Record from 1987 to 1992. He presented ITV’s flagship weekly political programme, Jonathan Dimbleby from 1995 until May 2006. He has presented Any Questions? and Any Answers? for BBC Radio 4 since 1987. He was ITV’s anchorman for the 1997, 2001 and 2005 general elections.

In 1994 he wrote, presented and co-produced Charles, The Private Man, the Public Role for ITV. In 1997 his five-part documentary series, The Last Governor, about the final years of British rule in Hong Kong, was screened by BBC 1. His documentaries about Ethiopia and Kosovo were shown by the ITV network in 1998 and 2000 respectively. His threepart series The New World War – about terrorism, poverty and the environment – was broadcast by ITV in 2004. In 2008 his five-part series Russia – A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby was broadcast by BBC2.

Jonathan’s publications include Richard Dimbleby (1975), The Palestinians (1979), The Prince of Wales (1994), The Last Governor (1997) and Russia – A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People (2008).

Among his charitable commitments he has been President of the Soil Association (1996 – 2008) and President of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) (1997 – present), Chairman of Index and Censorship (2004 –present), Chairman of the Susan Chilcott Scholarship and a Trustee of Dimbleby Cancer Care.

Listen to Jonathan Dimbleby’s speech here.