"The Company"
As well as the Territorial Army Regiment and Specials (the "Active Units"), the HAC exists as a separate charitable organisation—often colloquially referred to as "The Company" or "The House". The Company owns Armoury House and the Regiment's current grounds and in addition to supporting the Active Unit it provides the basis for a very active social calendar.
There are two distinct classes of member of the Company. The first, Regimental Members, are those who are currently serving or who have previously served in the HAC Regiment or Special Constabulary. The second, Members, must have served at least two years in Regular or three years in Volunteer units of the Crown or in the Police. Some members are people who have reached senior rank (for example Major General The Duke of Westminster) and they provide some 17% of the overall membership of the Company.
Since 1633 the Company has been governed by a Court of Assistants, like many of the City Livery Companies. The first Annual General Court for which a record can be found was held in 1660. In the early part of the 17th Century the Court of Aldermen of the City of London appointed the chief officers and paid the professional soldiers who trained members of the Company. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen are honorary members of the Court of Assistants.
There are two civilian ceremonial organisations that are part of the HAC as distinct from the 'Active Units' of the Regiment and the Specials:
Read more about this topic: Honourable Artillery Company
Famous quotes containing the word company:
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A man should not go where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with him,Mnot bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the same attitude of mind and reality of relation, which his daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)