Editing Lord Mayor of London (section)

==Role==
[[File:2011 Lord Mayor emerging from Royal Courts of Justice 2011.jpg|thumb|left|Lord Mayor [[David Wootton (lord mayor)|David Wootton]] and entourage emerging from the [[Royal Courts of Justice]], at the end of  the 2011 Lord Mayor's Show]]

The Lord Mayor is a member of the City of London's governing body, the [[City of London Corporation]] (incorporated as ''The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London''). The Corporation comprises the [[Court of Aldermen]] and the [[Court of Common Council]]; the former includes only the aldermen, while the latter includes both aldermen and common councilmen. The Lord Mayor belongs to and presides over both bodies.

The main role of the Lord Mayor is to represent, support and promote all aspects of the UK's financial service industries, including maritime. This is undertaken as head of the City of London Corporation and includes hosting visiting foreign government ministers, business people and dignitaries as well as conducting foreign visits of their own.<ref name="auto"/>

[[File:Paddington Bear, Canalside Plaza - geograph.org.uk - 4235879.jpg|thumb|upright|Lord Mayor of London-themed [[Paddington Bear]] statue in 2014, auctioned to raise funds for the [[National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children]] (NSPCC)]]
Banquets hosted by the Lord Mayor serve as opportunities for senior government figures to deliver major speeches. At the Lord Mayor's Banquet (held on the Monday after the Lord Mayor's Show), the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] delivers the [[keynote]] address. At the Bankers' Dinner in June, the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] delivers a speech known as the "Mansion House Speech", which takes its name from the Lord Mayor's residence. At the Easter Banquet, also hosted each year at the [[Mansion House, London|Mansion House]], the [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]] addresses an audience of international dignitaries.

The Lord Mayor takes part in major state occasions; for example, in 2013, the then-Lord Mayor, Sir [[Roger Gifford]], carried the [[Mourning Sword]] at [[Margaret Thatcher's funeral]], processing ahead of the Queen and [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]], into [[St Paul's Cathedral]].

The Lord Mayor performs numerous other functions, including serving as the [[chief magistrate]] of the City of London, [[Port of London Authority#Traditions|admiral of the Port of London]], [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of [[City, University of London]], president of [[Gresham College]], president of City of London [[Reserve Forces and Cadets Association]], and trustee of [[St Paul's Cathedral]]. The Lord Mayor also heads the City's Commission of Lieutenancy, which represents the sovereign in the City of London (other counties usually have [[lord lieutenant]]s, as opposed to Commissions), and annually attends a meeting of the [[Treloar School|Treloar Trust]] (named after [[Sir William Treloar, 1st Baronet|Sir William Treloar]], Lord Mayor in 1906), in [[Hampshire]].  The Treloar Trust runs two educational sites for disabled children: a school and college.<ref>A more detailed account of the role of the lord mayor can be found in former Lord Mayor Sir John Stuttard's ''Whittington to World Financial Centre&nbsp;– The City of London and its Lord Mayor'' (2008 by Phillimore & Co) {{ISBN|978-1-86077-586-4}}.</ref>