Sheila met Ramon Yeo during his 1994/95 year of office, and with his kind co-operation wrote this piece about him for publication on her web site. It is reproduced here with a few minor alterations:
In May 1994, Ramon Yeo was the first member of the Yeo family to be elected as mayor of Exeter. Exeter has the oldest Right Worshipful mayoralty in England after the City of London and Winchester, giving the Exeter mayor a head position in all parades and ceremonial occasions. For example, when the mayors and lord mayors of other cities were invited to Exeter to celebrate the 400th anniversary of County status in 1937, Exeter’s mayor was at the head of the procession into the Cathedral by virtue of his seniority.
The mayor is elected each year from the Exeter city councillors, and is supported by a deputy. The Lord Mayor is non-political during their year of office but the Deputy Lord Mayor remains politically active. They have a busy engagement calendar, attending in excess of six hundred functions during the year. Each year the Lord Mayor raises money for their chosen charity and attends a variety of fundraising events – an average of £15,000 per annum is raised.
The Lord Mayor is elected for one year during which he or she is chairman of the council and First Citizen of the city. In Exeter it was the case that the office rotated in proportion to the political representation and it fell to Ramon as the most senior Conservative councillor who had not previously held the office. In his acceptance speech he drew attention to two portraits that hang in the Guildhall and have relevance to the Yeo family:
– The portrait of General Monk who was born at Great Potheridge at Merton and was made High Steward of Exeter in 1662, the year of the Act of Uniformity and the Book of Common Prayer. In that same year the vicar of Merton, Bartholomew Yeo, having refused to conform was deprived of his living and was succeeded by his nephew William Yeo
– The portrait of Princess Henrietta Anne, daughter of King Charles I, who was born in Exeter in 1644. In 1644 the Sheriff of Exeter was a Richard Yeo.
During his year the High Sheriff of Devon was the Countess of Arran, whose father was Earl Fortescue of Castle Hill near Chittlehampton. They attended many functions together and Ramon lunched with Lady Arran at Castle Hill a few times. One particular function was a visit to Exeter by Princess Anne in February 1995.
Ramon gave Lady Arran a copy from Notes and Gleanings, which described 20 February 1644, when George Yeo of Huish left Castle Hill to join the Royalist army in the South Hams and mentioned that the Sheriff of Devon in 1644 was a Fortescue and the Sheriff of Exeter was Richard Yeo. Three hundred years later the Sheriff of Devon was a Fortescue and the Mayor of Exeter was a Yeo!
It was also Ramon’s pleasure to attend many functions with Lord and Lady Clinton and there were many opportunities to discuss the historic family connections. When the year was over Lady Clinton invited him and his wife to a family lunch at Heanton Satchville, the estate which had previously belonged to the Yeo family. Before lunch Lord Clinton took him on a tour of Huish and Petrockstowe churches to see the important Yeo memorabilia.
Ramon is an accomplished organ player and has been organist at Withycombe Raleigh parish church for a few years. He is the Honary President of the Bach Society in Exeter and music is his first love outside his family. The origin of the Exeter Bach Society dates from the early 1950s, when as a young organ student Ramon was being taught by Reverend John Dams, Priest Vicar at Exeter Cathedral, himself an avid student of Bach and an accomplished performer of his organ works. Ramon spent the next fifty years exploring Bach’s music and as a subscriber to the Neue Bach Ausgabe has collected scores of the complete works.
In 1995, Ramon had the opportunity of calling a public meeting to determine whether there was support for forming a Bach Society in Exeter. The meeting took place on Bach’s birthday, 21 March, and was attended by some 25 people, who elected a steering committee. After ten years as Chairman of the society, Ramon has retired but continues to take an active interest in the society as Honorary President.
Ramon was very interested in finding out more about his Yeo roots and we met in the Exeter Record Office while he was researching the family. During his term as mayor I was invited to the Guildhall for tea to compare family history notes. Also present were Colin Yeo and his wife, who descend from the Swimbridge line. The tea was served in the Mayor’s Chamber on the ancient silver trays with the best china and cutlery and was an awesome experience. A photograph was taken by a reporter from the Exeter Express and Echo and appeared on the newspaper’s front page.