Lord Mayor

The Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.

Commonwealth of Nations

John Stuttard, Lord Mayor of London during the 2006 Lord Mayor's Show

• In Australia the Lord Mayor is a special rank for the Mayors of major cities, primarily the capitals of Australian states and territories. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong. See list of cities in Australia.
• In Canada, the only town with a Lord Mayor in the traditional sense is Niagara-on-the-Lake, as recognition of its role as the first Capital of Upper Canada. Unusually, the council of Brantford, Ontario has taken upon itself to appoint an honorary Lord Mayor Walter Gretzky in addition to the elected Mayor. This is the only example of a council granting the cachet itself, rather than the cachet being granted by a higher authority, such as the Crown or national government.
• In the Malaysian federal capital Kuala Lumpur (Federal territory separated from Selangor, since 1 February 1974) established on 1 February 1972.^{citation needed}
• In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is a purely ceremonial post conferred by letters patent. See List of lord mayoralties and lord provostships in the United Kingdom.
• In Uganda, the only jurisdiction with a Lord Mayor is Kampala, in recognition of its status as the capital city of the country.

Ireland

• In the Republic of Ireland, the posts of Lord Mayor of Dublin (granted under the Kingdom of Ireland) and Lord Mayor of Cork (granted when this city was part of the United Kingdom) still exist, and are symbolic titles as in the UK.

Equivalents in other languages

• In Denmark, as the translation of Danish Overborgmester, it is the title of the highest Mayor of Denmark's capital city, Copenhagen.
• In Germany, it is sometimes (and perhaps anachronistically or incongruously) used to translate German Oberbürgermeister, the title of the mayors of large, often county-free cities. Especially in large cities that consist of subunits governed also by mayors, the title Oberbürgermeister is usually used to distinguish the head executive of the entire city from those of the subunits. As in Australia, Germany's mayors serve as the actual executive leaders of their cities. Moreover, the post of mayor in the three German city-states is equivalent to that of a Ministerpräsident (head of government of one of Germany's constitutive States) and the respective post is referred to as Regierender Bürgermeister (Governing Mayor) in Berlin and Erster Bürgermeister (First Mayor) in Hamburg (in Bremen, the post is Mayor of Bremen).
• In Finland, the head city manager of the capital, Helsinki, is customarily given by the country's President the title ylipormestari [loosely translated: "high mayor"] (which then generally is much more used of the official than kaupunginjohtaja, the title of the office itself), a tradition that resembles closely the Lord Mayoralties in other countries.
• In Serbia, the Mayor is the head of a city or a town. He acts on behalf of the city, and performs an executive function.
• In Romania and Moldova, the mayors of the capitals (Bucharest and Chişinău, respectively) are named Primar General which means General Mayor. The name is ceremonial and it has no higher powers than mayors of other cities.
• In Hungary, the mayor of the capital Budapest is called főpolgármester which means Chief Mayor or Grand Mayor. Only the capital has a főpolgármester.
• In ancient China, jīng zhào yĭn (京兆尹) was the title given to the mayor of capital city, jīng zhào (京兆). Today, on the other hand, city mayor and party-appointed secretary (actual leader) of the four direct-controlled municipalities, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing, though without special titles, share the rank of provincial governor and party-appointed secretary.
• In Estonia, the mayor of the capital (Tallinn), was named Lord Mayor (Ülemlinnapea) from 1938 to 1940.
• In Czech Republic, the mayor of cities larger than 100,000 citizens (currently six cities) is called Primátor

In fiction

In The Beatles's movie Yellow Submarine, the fictional utopia of Pepperland has a lord mayor. It is the lord mayor who sends Old Fred to find help after the Blue Meanies attack.

See also

• Lord Provost, the similar post in Scotland