The Master Cutler is the head of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire

Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire

The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire is a trade guild of metalworkers based in Sheffield, England. It was incorporated in 1624 by an Act of parliament. The head is called the Master Cutler...

 established in 1624. Their role is to act as an ambassador of industry in Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The Master Cutler is elected by the freemen of the company on the first Monday of September of each year and the position taken in the first Tuesday of October. Despite the title, the Master Cutler does not have to be involved in the cutlery

Cutlery

Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...

 business, or even the steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 industry, to be elected.

The Master Cutler for October 2011 - 2012 is Pamela Liversidge

List of Master Cutlers

Master Cutlers have included :

• 1624 & 1628 Robert Sorsby
• 1808 Ebenezer Rhodes
  Ebenezer Rhodes
  Ebenezer Rhodes , topographer, was born in Masborough near Rotherham, in 1762. He entered the cutlery trade in 1777 and served a seven year apprenticeship. He was interested in reading and the theatre but his occupation was as a senior partnership with David Champion in a business that made scissors...
  
  
• 1816 Thomas Asline Ward
• 1855 Frederick Mappin
• 1863 Thomas Jessop
  Thomas Jessop
  Thomas Jessop was a steelmaker who became Mayor of Sheffield and Master Cutler...
  
  
• 1865-66 Sir John Brown
  John Brown (industrialist)
  Sir John Brown , British industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was known as the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade....
  
  
• 1867-9 Mark Firth
  Mark Firth
  Mark Firth was an English industrialist and philanthropist.Born in Sheffield, Mark joined the crucible steel works of Sanderson Brothers where his father worked as head smelter, but left in 1842 to set up his own business with his brother, Thomas Jr, in 1842...
  
  
• 1870 William Bragge
  William Bragge
  William Bragge, F.S.A., F.G.S., was a civil engineer, antiquarian, and author. He established a museum and art gallery. He was notable in his day for collecting a library containing the entire literature on tobacco...
  
  
• 1872 Thomas Vickers
• 1890 Robert Colver
• 1897 Alexander Wilson
  Alexander Wilson
  Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator.Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland, the son of an illiterate distiller. In 1779 he was apprenticed as a weaver. His main interest at this time was in writing poetry...
  
  
• 1908 Douglas Vickers
  Douglas Vickers
  Douglas Vickers was an English industrialist and politician. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Edward Vickers , owner and Director of the famous Sheffield firm Vickers, Sons & Co. Ltd., and Frances Mary Vickers, née Douglas . He became Director of the family business in 1897, and was Master Cutler...
  
  
• 1910 George Senior
• 1911 Arthur Balfour
  Arthur Balfour, 1st Baron Riverdale
  Arthur Balfour, 1st Baron Riverdale GBE , known as Sir Arthur Balfour, 1st Baronet, from 1929 to 1935, was a British steel manufacturer.Balfour was the son of Herbert Balfour...
  
  
• 1913 Thomas William Ward
  Thomas William Ward (industrialist)
  Thomas William Ward was a scrap metal merchant and shipbreaker from Sheffield, England, most famous for the establishment of his company Thomas Ward Ltd, and its First World War-era 'employee' Lizzie the Elephant.-Life:...
  
  
• 1914-18 William Henry Ellis
  William Henry Ellis
  Sir William Henry Ellis, GBE was a British civil engineer and steel maker.Ellis was born on 20 August 1860 in Pitsmoor, Sheffield, Yorkshire. He was the son of John Devonshire Ellis and, his wife, Elizabeth Bourne...
  
  
• 1919 Henry Kenyon Stephenson
• 1935 Samuel Roberts
• 1936 Sir Frederick Pickworth
• 1983 William J D Carr
• 1998 Douglas and Pamela Liversidge
  Pamela Liversidge
  Pamela Liversidge OBE was the first female president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.-Life:She was born 23 December 1949 and graduated with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Aston University. After graduating she worked for GKN, then moved first into forging, then the electricity...
  
   (Master and Mistress Cutler)
• 1999 H Stuart Johnson
• 2000 Vernon Smith
• 2001 Richard Prest
• 2002 John Bramah
• 2003 Neil Turner
• 2004 John Tissiman
• 2005 Timothy Reed
• 2006 Alan Reid
• 2007 Gordon W. Bridge
• 2008 Martin G Howell
• 2009 James Newman
• 2010 William Speirs
• 2011 Pamela Liversidge
  Pamela Liversidge
  Pamela Liversidge OBE was the first female president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.-Life:She was born 23 December 1949 and graduated with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Aston University. After graduating she worked for GKN, then moved first into forging, then the electricity...