Alderman John Stuttard is the 679th Lord Mayor of London. He is also the sponsoring Alderman of The Guild of Educators playing a pivotal role in establishing our Guild six years ago.

It is traditional for the Lord Mayor to support a particular charity during his year of office. John Stuttard's appeal this year focuses on cross border learning. The main beneficiary will be Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) because it concentrates on the transfer of knowledge and skills that can change lives. John Stuttard is also supporting three other charities. These are: King Edward's School at Whitley in Guildford (established in 1553 for youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds), The Mansion House Scholarship Scheme and The Guild of Educators which assists cross border learning.

So for the first time The Guild took part in the spectacular Lord Mayor's show in the City of London on the 11th November. The Lord Mayor had kindly provided two of his vintage Rolls Royce cars for the Educators "float ". Some 30 Freemen of the Guild, in full academic dress, paraded with the cars and, most spectacularly, there were 20 school pupils holding a large 2.5 metre diameter helium filled balloon.

The parade route is 2 miles long and this year had 144 floats that took some 68 minutes to pass by. Over 100,000 people lined the route and the event was shown live on national television.

The Lord Mayor has a passion for old cars and as he says he is "hooked" on pre-war Rolls-Royces. One of the cars that he provided for the parade was built in 1934 and in 1997 John Stuttard and a small team drove it 10,000 miles in the Peking to Paris rally raising £25,000 for the Red Cross in Nepal.

This picture (with the Rolls Royce in the parade) shows John Stuttard and his team on the highest road in the world, Tangulu Pass (17,800ft) in Quinghai Province, Western China during the Peking to Paris rally in 1997.

Pictures showing members of The Guild of Educators in the Lord Mayor's Parade on 11th November 2006.