A hundred years ago last Saturday, on 24 November 1884. Dr Thomas Sprague. my sometime predecessor in this office, delivered an Address. He opened by announcing that, after prolonged and painful negotiations, a Royal Charter had been granted to the Institute placing it, in his words “…as a professional body publicly recognized as representing, and entitled to speak in the name of, actuaries in the United Kingdom”. It was impossible, he wisely added, to predict exactly what new duties would devolve upon the profession as a consequence of this change.