Agenda and draft minutes

NB: This Court has been convened for the grant of the HonoraryFreedom to Sir Tim Berners-Lee in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the information revolution and the transformative effect the web has had on the World.

Resolved Unanimously – That in accordance with the resolution of the Court of Common Council on 1st May last, the Honorary Freedom of the City of London be presented to Sir Tim Berners-Lee Order of Merit, Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, the inventor of the World Wide Web, in honour of his contribution to the information revolution and the transformative effect the web has had on the World.

The Court proceeded to confer the Freedom upon Sir Tim Berners-Lee with all due ceremony.

Resolved Unanimously – That the Address of the Chamberlain and the reply of Sir Tim Berners-Lee be entered on the journal of this Court and printed in the minutes of the proceedings sent to every Member

The Chamberlain delivered an Address to Sir Tim Berners-Lee as follows:-

“On behalf of the Lord Mayor and City of London Corporation, I am delighted to welcome our Guests to Guildhall.

And it is a particular pleasure to welcome our new Honorary Freeman of the City, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Perhaps I may say welcome back to Guildhall as we were fortunate enough to be able to host you and the other inaugural winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering here at Guildhall last year.

That Prize is given to individuals responsible for ground breaking innovation that has been of global benefit to humanity. That level of world achievement is exactly what the Honorary Freedom of the City is intended to celebrate, and the City is delighted to have had this opportunity to confer it at this ceremony.

There are very few previous instances of Honorary Freedoms to mark technical innovation and achievement. The first two were the Astronomer Royal, George Airey, and Sir Henry Bessemer, the inventor who gave industry cheap steel