Master, Wardens and Clerk

DAVID BALFOUR

MASTER
DAVID BALFOUR

David is a Chartered Accountant and spent most of his working life in the Dairy Industry. His last ten years were spent running The National Dairy Council, whose role was to promote and protect the Dairy Industry and its products, including acting for the whole dairy industry during the BSE crisis. He is perhaps the only Chartered Accountant to win an international marketing award.

He and Sue have lived in the same house in Gerrards Cross for over 50 years. He gardens on acid sand and it is therefore full of acid loving plants including rhododendrons, several grown from seed. A keen golfer, he has been Captain, First Team Captain and Chairman of his golf club and organised the Livery’s annual golf event for 12 years.

He is the elder son of Past Master Dick Balfour, joining the Livery in 2005, with his younger brother, Michael, following a year later. His younger daughter, Catriona, is also a Liveryman; hopefully she will not be the last of the younger generation to be so.

BOB IVISON

UPPER WARDEN
BOB IVISON

Robert ‘Bob’ Ivison joined the Livery in 2004 and was elected onto Court in 2019, joining the Education Committee. He has been in the horticultural industry for over 50 years, starting as an apprentice in the Royal Parks, to studying at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, through parks and green space management positions to running his own consultancy business until ‘retiring’ in 2017.

In 2003 he was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and a Fellow of the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management.

Currently he is on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian programme Communities in Bloom and is Chairman of their International Panel of Judges. He judges in North America, Asia, Europe, and the UK.

He is married to Teresa, and they spend as much time as possible with their children and grandchildren. In his spare time, he is Chairman of the Friends Group of his local park and a volunteer steward at the De Havilland Aircraft Museum.

JONATHAN MATHESON

RENTER WARDEN
JONATHAN MATHESON

Jonathan was Head Boy of his school and subsequently took two degrees in Economics at Cape Town University and an MA in the Economics of Finance and Investment at Exeter University. His career was split equally between stockbroking and fund management; he was Head of Investment Marketing at Fidelity Investments Limited.

He has had a lifelong passion for plants and horticulture and attended a second-level course at Capel Manor. He became a Liveryman in 2021 and was shortly afterwards elected to Court. His focus has been on Education, firstly as Head of Schools Outreach and, for the past two years, as Chair of Education.

He serves on two ‘Pollinating London Together’ committees and is on the Executive Committee of the London Children’s Flower Society. He was a judge for ‘London in Bloom’ for many years and is currently a judge for ‘Flowers in the City’. Aside from horticulture, his other main passion is opera.

PHILIPPA BURROUGH

SPADEBEARER
PHILIPPA BURROUGH

Philippa graduated from Durham University and then gained a diploma in the History of Fine and Decorative arts. She enjoyed a 15 year career as a Lloyd’s broker specialising in Fine Art and “Specie” Insurance. She “retired” in 1999 to become a full time mother to two boys and to develop her family garden.

She has created an 11 acre garden in “drier than Jerusalem” Essex that has featured in articles, books and twice appeared on BBC Gardeners World. She has raised over £275,000 for charity by opening the garden and is visited by horticultural groups from home and abroad. The Garden won the East of England Favourite Garden for the NGS.

Philippa enjoys cooking, art, reading and classical music. A winter passion is National Hunt racing and the Burrough colours have won the Grand and 3 other Nationals.
Bryan, her husband, is a Past Master of the Distillers and former High Sheriff of Essex.

CHRISTINE RIGDEN

CLERK
CHRISTINE RIGDEN

The Clerk acts as Chief Executive, and is responsible for managing the Company office and supporting the Master, Wardens and Court. The current Clerk, Christine Rigden, joined the Gardeners' Company in September 2025.

Christine was elected non-Aldermanic Sheriff in 2015, and annually as Ale Conner since 2007. She remains an active member of the Masons’ Company and the Tylers & Bricklayers. Outside the City, Christine has been involved in a number of professional, charitable and not-for-profit organisations including periods as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board for HMP Swaleside, a Council Member & Honorary Secretary (Science) of The Geological Society of London, and as Deputy Chairman of Kent Enterprise Trust.