17 November 2025
Will Reed, Director of the Boat Building Academy (BBA) in Lyme Regis has been granted the prestigious honour of the Freedom of the City of London in his capacity as a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
After receiving Freedom of the Shipwrights’ Company in March, Will, 46, attended the Guildhall (on October 9th), where he was admitted as a Freeman of the City. Later that evening, in a separate ceremony, Will was ‘clothed in the Livery’ of the Worship Company of Shipwrights becoming a Liveryman.
Will’s membership of the Shipwrights’ Company reflects his outstanding work in preserving and promoting the UK’s wooden boat building industry.
A former student on the BBA’s renowned 40-week boat building course, Will became a tutor in 2012 and took the helm of the academy in 2019.
Since then, he has helped guide it to charitable status (in 2020) and, with the support of the Shipwrights’ Company, has implemented a successful bursary programme in boat building and furniture making. The BBA Bursary programme works in tandem with the Shipwrights’ Company’s Billmeir Award Scheme to enable more people to be able to afford to train at BBA.
Will has also worked tirelessly towards making boat building more inclusive, introducing a female-only bursary, a women’s introduction to woodworking course and forming a successful partnership with the Women in Boatbuilding organisation.
As a result, a recent 40-week course became the first ever to have an equal number of male and female students.
This honour from the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights is a tremendous privilege for me personally and much deserved recognition for the work of the BBA and all of its partners. I am always made to feel incredibly welcome at Shipwrights events as one of the few members who is a boat builder, and for my involvement in providing the training to preserve this important craft. Our students have benefitted from the generosity of the Shipwrights over many years, through grant donations in the form of Billmeir awards, which promote the skills of ship and boat building and related trades and, wherever possible, encourage people to develop careers in these areas.
We have also been privileged to welcome members of the Shipwrights’ Company on many visits to the academy. Past Prime Warden Tony Vlasto is a great friend to the BBA and the current Prime Warden, Admiral Sir George Zambellas, visited last year, along with the Clerk/CEO, Richard Cole-Mackintosh, and several other Shipwrights, and all are hugely enthusiastic about our work and eager to support our events and projects, both financially and by raising awareness of what we do. This is particularly important as we embark on our plans to purchase the BBA building and in doing so secure its future. As the last remaining boat building school to offer training of this depth and quality in the UK, the support of organisations including the Shipwrights’ Company is vital.
Will Reed Director at Boat Building AcademyOne of 113 livery companies in the City of London, the Shipwrights’ Company dates back from before 1199, when its original purpose was to safeguard the quality of shipbuilding in London.
Today it supports marine apprenticeships, boat building courses and naval and marine engineering students at university and presents annual awards of excellence.
Will joins 450 other active Liverymen and 300 Freemen (men and women), all of whom have a strong and current connection with the maritime and marine sector and come from a broad spectrum of maritime professions including marine and maritime law, shipbroking, ship insurance, ship owners, ship builders, the Royal and Merchant Navies, marine and naval engineering, academia, yacht and super yacht building and supply chains.
Will’s status as a Freeman of the City of London is an honour he shares with King Charles III and the late Nelson Mandela. In days gone by Freemen were allowed to carry a naked sword in public. They could also marry in St Paul’s Cathedral, choose a silken rope if hanged and drive sheep across London Bridge.