Ian Lumsden was installed as Master of the Worshipful Company of Paviors at a ceremony in St Martin-within-Ludgate on Wednesday 2 March 2016. He succeeded Immediate Past Master Terry Last.
Ian was born in Stepney, London, and was adopted, aged eight, into the Lumsden family, growing up in the family home near Watford. He attended Watford Technical High school and left after successfully completing his A and S levels, opting for work rather than accepting an offered university place.
Beginning his career with Trollope and Colls Ltd as one of the last indentured students for what was intended to be a year or two before a university course, Ian found the work too much of a pull and never returned to full time education. Joining Paviors’ Past Master John Lelliott in the early eighties, he progressed there from Site Manager to Group Construction Director and during that time was proud to have qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building. Ian has now been in both the property and construction sector for over fourteen years, and is currently Strategic Director of London Underground’s Northern Line Extension, and involved in both the Property Strategy and Internal Construction Unit within the company.
Ian and Tessa live in the Chiltern Hills village of Speen, and he has five children, Kellie, Greg and Bradley, and two with Tessa, Hollie and Bryonie, who are still living at home. Ian hopes that we will soon be seeing the elder ones at livery functions as members rather than guests. He is passionate about anything with an engine and has owned most types of toys sporting them. Ian has a commercial skippers’ licence, a car-racing licence and a pilot’s licence. He enjoys all forms of motorsport and rugby, nowadays though more as a spectator. He plays golf socially and shoots regularly although, with five children, time is limited for these activities as he is very keen that the family ties are kept strong, and he spends as much time as possible with the ever extending family as the children grow and partners appear.
Ian selected the RNLI and War Child as his Master’s Charities for the year.