To commemorate John’s last Technical Committee meeting he was presented with a cake decorated with a hard hat, masons mallets, chisel, Stone Federation logos and a lot of “stones”!!! 

All John’s friends and colleagues wrote fond farewells in a specially produced card with a limerick penned for the occasion by Stone Federation staff which read….

“There was a Stonemason called John,
whose career was particularly long
He gave lots of advice,
whilst remaining very nice
and he could always be relied upon…”

John was very touched and grateful for all their kind words and had bought along some of the original documents produced by the Technical Committee of yore. He recalled stories of when he ran the Technical Helpline and one of the most unusual enquries was when he had to advise someone that their damp patch on stone in a converted stables was in fact not rising damp, but residue horse urine!!!!!!

Below: As one goes so another arrives……. John at his last meeting welcomes Robin Canning from Instarmac to his first meeting.