Anniversary Address

Extract

My immediate duty in addressing you for the first time from this Presidential Chair at your Anniversary Meeting must be to express my gratitude for the signal honour you have done me in placing me in it. When I was elected a Fellow something over forty years ago it certainly never crossed my mind that I might one day find myself in this exalted seat, and I am as conscious now of my inadequacy to serve as your President as I was then of my unworthiness to receive the distinction of your Fellowship. I am all the more deeply sensible of your continuing confidence in my capacity to maintain the traditions of our Society: it has been a source of great and increasing happiness to me personally as I have become with the passing of the years more and more concerned in the intimate management of our affairs here in Burlington House.