The Lord Mayor serves for a year and is elected at the end of September each year in the Great Hall of Guildhall. He or she is elected by an assembly, known as Common Hall, including all liverymen of at least one year's standing. The Lord Mayor is assisted in his or her duties by two Sheriffs who are elected at Midsummer each year by Common Hall.
The new Lord Mayor takes office in November, the day before the Lord Mayor's Show. The Livery Companies are traditionally represented in the procession and when it reaches the Mansion House, members wearing their livery robes greet the Lord Mayor.
Clothworker Lord Mayors
Sir William Hewett 1559
Sir Rowland Hayward 1570 (and briefly 1591)
Sir James Hawes 1574
Sir Edward Osborne 1583
Sir John Spencer 1594
Sir Thomas Skinner 1596
Sir Nicholas Moseley 1599
Sir John Watts 1606
Ralph Freeman 1633
Sir Robert Parkhurst 1634
Sir Richard Gurney, Bt 1642
Sir John Ireton 1658
Sir John Robinson, Bt 1662
Sir William Peake 1667
Sir Francis Chaplin 1677
Sir Thomas Lane 1694
Sir Robert Beachcroft 1711
Thomas Winterbottom 1751
Sir Samuel Fludyer, Bt 1761
Samuel Turner 1768
Barlow Trecothick 1770
Sir John Perring, Bt 1803
John Humphery 1842
(purchased into this
Company in 1843)
Sir John Musgrove, Bt 1850
Sir William Anderson Rose 1862
Sir Sydney Waterlow 1872
(purchased into this
Company in 1873)
Sir Bernard Waley-Cohen, Bt 1960
Sir Peter Gadsden 1979