The 50th celebratory Anniversary Event on 21st May 2009 (the exact date since the inaugural meeting of BACE in 1959) was really a great success. As members will be aware the venue for the event was the Thames Barrier in London and our hosts for the event were the Environment Agency, who provided tours of the Barrier’s infrastructure and working mechanism prior to the technical seminar held at the Barrier’s Conference Centre.

I was delighted to be able to give the Welcome Address to the 125 Members and guests, who were able to attend and although the EA were able to increase the seating capacity from 110 to 125, by providing us with extra seating, we were having to turn Members away long before the event, since attendance was strictly on a, ‘first come, first served’ basis, and there was “not an empty seat in the place”.

The Welcome Address was directed to our individual Members, our Sustaining Member Companies, our special VIP guests, our hosts, our sponsors and our Past Presidents. The individual Members who were present and some have been Members for the full 50 years and our more recent influx of Sustaining Company Members, which had expanded our individual Membership to include representatives of these Companies, who would not normally join the Institute in their own right.

As Members will have seen in the 50th issue of Corrosion Management, we had selected ten special VIP guests and each one of these was welcomed. The VIP’s, Derek Bayliss, Charles Booker, Gordon Currer, Harry Hatley, Jack Tighe, Brian Tunnard were all present, but regrettably Graham Wood was not able to attend. In addition, Nicola Galloway, grand-daughter of Jack Galloway was there to represent her grand-father and Adam Tiratsoo represented his father and grand-father, which emphasised the theme of, “across the generations”.

All of the VIPs were presented with a gold-framed certificate, by the President, which recognised their special role and affiliation to the Institute over the 50 years.

The Rt Hon Tony Benn, who was selected by the organising committee as a VIP for his influential role as Minister for Technology in 1969 was also unable to attend, but he wished us all the very best by letter, which was reprinted in the special programme circulated to all members.

The welcome to the sponsors, whose generous financial contributions made the event possible was next and a tribute was given to these Sustaining Member Companies for their on-going support. The list of these organisations is as follows:

MAJOR SPONSORS

• Environment Agency – Thames Barrier

• Atkins PLC Water Division

• PPG – (Ameron/Sigma)

• Square One – Publishers

SPONSORS

• Anglia CP Services

• Hockway

• BAC Corrosion

• Impalloy

• Cathodic Protection

• Leighs Paints

• Concrete Repairs

• Penspen

• Corrosion Control

• Pipeline Maintenance

• Corrpro Europe

• Pyeroy

• Deepwater Services

• Strada

• FA Clover & Sons

• Steel Protection Consultancy Ltd

• Halcrow

Finally we were able to welcome 8 Past Presidents of the 28 who had held that important role over the 50 years and there were only 4 living Past Presidents, who had been unable to attend, due to business commitments or overseas travel.

Our President Paul Lambert presented the main Keynote Address and thanked the Organising Committee for the excellent work in putting together a suitably special celebration for our Golden Anniversary. Paul made a very entertaining and meaningful presentation, covering various aspects of the Institute’s development.

He referred to the role of Tony Benn as Minister for Technology in the 60s and the setting up of the TP Hoar Committee on the Cost of Corrosion and how this had affected the development and merger of the major corrosion societies in the 70s and how the Institute had developed to the present day. He also looked at the way forward for the next 50 years and thanked the EA for their support and organisation of the event on the day.

He was also able to announce the name of the incoming Vice President Professor David Worsley of Swansea University.

There were two major technical presentations, the first one by Martin Earlam – Asset Manager of the Barrier on the successful corrosion control techniques adopted to protect London’s Thames Barrier from corrosion, this was particularly relevant since two of the consultants were present Derek Bayliss and Harry Hatley. Jack Tighe the founder of the company, which had applied the successful coating system was also in attendance. Martin also explained to Members the working of this famous structure, which had been opened by the Queen exactly 25 years ago, this month.

The second technical presentation was planned to cover bridges and was given by Barry Colford, the Chief Engineer and Bridgemaster of the Forth Road Bridge. This world famous suspension bridge structure had also been opened by the Queen in 1964. The paint systems, which had been so successful, were started to be tested in 1959, the very year when the Institute was formed. Barry’s paper was included in the last edition of Corrosion Management, so Members who were not in attendance on the 21st May, will be able to read all about the success of that structure.

The third technical item was a pipeline protection panel discussion organised by Past President, Brian Wyatt. Brian had arranged an excellent panel grouping, covering the early days with Harry Hatley and Gordon Currer and working across the Pipeline generation, the highlights of which were presentations by Dave Harvey, Trevor Osborne and John Thirkettle with questions being asked by the Members present at the completion of the three talks.

The finale of this very successful and enjoyable day was the presentation by President Paul Lambert of gold-framed certificates to all of the VIP’s and the representatives of the sponsoring companies.

Finally Paul presented a special silver plaque to Gill Inwood, who has been the Administration Office Manager with ICorr for exactly 20 years, having joined ICorr when the Institute moved to Leighton Buzzard in 1989. Denise Aldous, who was the main ICorr team member responsible for organising the programme and who has now been with us for 1 year after joining us from Sigma when we moved away from Corrosion House, also received a token of the Membership’s appreciation.

The many phone calls, letters and e-mails, since the event, from our Members and their guests who attended have confirmed that the efforts put together by the Organising Committee had resulted in a very successful 50th anniversary event, which will be remembered for many years to come.

David H. Deacon

Chairman Organising Committee.

Members Area

Institute Technical Forum