Wedding Speech, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 29 March, 2019.

Thank you everyone for coming to this wonderful event. What a spectacular location, what a truly lovely day.

Let’s toast the bride and groom, and wish them all the happiness in the world.

Many of us have flown half way around the world to be here on this memorable occasion -- and this is one of the proudest days of my life.

What a romantic idea, to get married in this ancient, picturesque place. In Spring, when the daffodils are out, the cherry trees are in flower, and the famous Cambridge meadows are looking their absolute best.

England is notorious for its terrible weather, but the heavens have also conspired to make this a completely perfect day.

I know it’s customary to tell embarrassing stories from your daughter’s childhood, but as I wish to live to a grand old age I might just avoid that.

The technical term is patricide. Put simply: I don’t wish to be killed.

Except to say that Henrietta has worked extremely hard to achieve her successes, including two university degrees. And she has built a life of her own, stepped out into the wider world, and now you are stepping out with someone else.

From the time she first met Christian, it was obvious Henrietta had met the man she loved and wished to make a life with.

What a wonderful thing, this day, this union.

To you, Christian, to your family, to Henrietta, now you are building a life together.

Christian, if the time ever comes you will make a great father, and Henrietta, you will make a great, fiercely protective mother. I hope you make me as proud a grandfather as I am a father, but whatever happens in the future, I wish you both all the very best.

It’s an emotional day, of course, because we’ve all travelled so far to be here, literally and figuratively. But it’s also a truly magnificent day which will lodge in each of our memories as one of the happiest days of our respective lives.

Let us toast the bride and groom.