The Worshipful Company of Coachmakers
and Coach Harness Makers of London

www.coachmakers.co.uk

The Coachmakers Award to Industry 2011

presented to Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL)

SSTL is the world’s leading small satellite company, delivering operational space missions for a range of applications including Earth observation, science and communications. The Company designs, manufactures and operates high performance satellites and ground systems for a fraction of the price normally associated with space missions, with 300 staff working on turnkey satellite platforms, space-proven satellite subsystems and optical instruments.

Since 1981 SSTL has built and launched 34 satellites as well as providing training and development programmes, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA, NASA, international governments and commercial customers, with its innovative approach that is changing the economics of space. Based in Guildford, UK, SSTL is owned by EADS Astrium NV

A Message from Dame Kiri te Kanawa

When Vice-Admiral Tim Laurence asked me to help with musical suggestions for this evening’s event, I was delighted and excited at the prospect. In recent times, I have been nurturing young singers as they embark on their long years of study for their musical careers, and so it is with great pleasure that tonight’s short concert will present to you two young opera singers I have been working with through the Kiri te Kanawa Foundation: the lovely young soprano, Laurina Bendziunaite, from Lithuania, and a fellow New Zealander and Maori, baritone Philip Rhodes. Our two other singers represent the freshest musical theatre talent today, Nadim Naaman and Katy Traherne, both of whom are now appearing in “The Phantom of the Opera”. Accompanying them is pianist Craig White, with whom I have also been working. Enjoy this evening’s entertainment!
Kiri te Kanawa.

Trinity House

Trinity House as it is recognised today came into being in 1514, although it’s roots travel back still further. A young Henry VIII granted the charitable guild of mariners, later to be known as The Corporation of Trinity House, a Royal Charter investing in them the authority to regulate the pilotage on the River Thames, which at the time was not only a leading gateway for the trade and naval deployment but also a heavily-travelled public thoroughfare.

Later in the sixteenth century, Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I, extended the Corporation’s powers to include ‘bouyage and beaconage’ covering the length of the English coastline.

Thus it remains to this day: Trinity House is the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, maintaining 71 lighthouses, 9 light vessels and more than 500 other aids to navigation, ranging from buoys and beacons to a satellite navigation service. In addition, it is a deep sea pilotage authority and an influential charitable organisation, promoting the safety, welfare and training of mariners.

The main responsibilities of Trinity House are to maintain an efficient and cost-effective marine aids to navigation service to meet the requirements of all mariners, through some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. From the provision of traditional aids to navigation such as lighthouses, bouyage and beacons of the development of the new generation of aids such as Automatic Identification Systems.

As a modern authority with highly technical operations to run, Trinity house naturally requires separate offices for most of its functions. Nevertheless its historical headquarters remain at the heart of Trinity House and retain their atmosphere of a working centre with an active role in the life of the organisation.

Trinity House has two registered charities dedicated to the relief of aged and needy mariners, their widows and dependents - or the modern equivalents thereof, and primarily the education and welfare of mariners. Substantial grants are made to other charities engaged in a wide range of related causes, such as sailing for people with disabilities, safety at sea for leisure users of coastal waters and port welfare facilities for seamen of all nationalities. Maritime education is a further traditional interest, and the Corporation operates a comprehensive Cadet Training Scheme that opens opportunities to young people seeking careers in the merchant service. These charities are greatly assisted by income derived from the banqueting and hospitality facilities within Trinity House itself, as well as from income derived from investments and estates bequeathed to Trinity House in the past.