Biography

Robert Ian Wingfield was born in Chester, Cheshire County, England. Son of Robert and Gwendoline Wingfield, and has lived in London, England for over 40 years and has been researching his family for all that time too.

Ian received three degrees, first from the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, then a postgraduate degree at the London School of Economics, and subsequently a Ph.D. in sociology at Imperial College, London.

Ian has been an elected councillor to the London Borough of Southwark for the Labor Party since 1989, and has been re-elected ten times.

He is currently Chair of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Ian belongs to a local charitable group, the Guidable Manor. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Institute of Management Services, the City and Guilds College, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Athenaeum Club (Liverpool).

Ian is immersed in ceremonial City of London activities. He was admitted as a ‘Freeman of the City of London’ in 2000 and in 2009 Ian became a ‘Freeman of Shrewsbury’.

Then in 2010, “The Court of the Worshipful Company of Loriners” clothed him in “The Livery” and admitted him into “The Freedom of the Company,” of which he is now a full member, and sits on its Court.

Similarly, Ian was admitted as a full member to the Worshipful Company of Glaziers in 2015.

Ian was also elected Ward Beadle for the Cripplegate Ward in the City of London in which capacity he accompanies the ward Alderman to all formal City of London ceremonial events. And in 2021 Ian was appointed Clerk to the Company of Communicators in which he facilitates all their activities.