The following is the text of the ‘Toast to the Institution’ made by Lord Flowers, FRS, Rector of Imperial College, on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary Banquet at the Guildhall in the City of London on 1O May 1984.
President, My Lords, Your Munificence - I mean the Chairman of the University Grants Committee - Ladies and Gentlemen: We all like to celebrate anniversaries, and as many of them as possible, preferably all at once. If my calculations serve me well, I make out that this is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Concrete Institute, the 62nd anniversary of its first calling itself The Institution of Structural Engineers, the 60th anniversary of the first publication of The Structural Engineer, and the 50th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter.