When I first started working as a journalist in Parliament, I watched how MPs had carol services and Christmas parties to celebrate their major festival, while lamenting the fact that there was no opportunity for Jews on the Parliamentary estate to celebrate Chanucah.

With the help of then Labour MP Greville Janner, we started a modest attempt at a Chanucah lighting ceremony in 1984 in a committee room booked for “a meeting”.

And, over several years, the event grew in popularity.

But we were always conscious that officially the rooms were not supposed to be for a “Chanucah meeting” — especially, as against all the rules, I smuggled in bottles of wine, soft drinks and a generous supply of doughnuts.

We were delighted to have the Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits lead our service, at which often more than 100 attended.

After Louise Ellman entered Parliament in 1997, she became our regular sponsor, but disaster struck a couple of years later when a batch of doughnuts with runny jam left tell tale deposits on the hallowed carpet of what has since become Westminster Hall.

A summons to the-then Serjeant at Arms — who effectively runs the Commons — swiftly followed, but any issues were quietly resolved as the office holder was a personal good friend and very sympathetic to our difficulties.

However he advised that rules were rules and we had to find an alternative venue.

I decided to approach Lord Martin to explain our plight.

With characteristic generosity, he opened his arms and residence, known as Speakers House, to host us, but noticed each year I had to borrow a menorah from a nearby synagogue for the then-Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks to use.

By then, officially sponsoring the service, Lord Martin called me into his office and told me that, during his days as a Glasgow City councillor, he made a visit to Newcastle town hall where he had seen a large menorah, which had been presented to the local authority by the city’s Jewish community.

So impressed with its design and beauty, he sought my advice on how he could commission a replica to be made from silver to be added to the Speaker’s collection, which we could also use for all subsequent ceremonies.

Photographs were obtained with some of us amazed he could remember a menorah he had seen only once many years earlier.

But he commissioned and funded a copy and, a year later, it was given pride of place in his display cabinet, towering over the numerous other trophies and items either presented to or collected by previous Speakers.

Subsequently, it has been used every year, and, while Lord Martin remained in office, he always referred with pride to being able to offer his home and hospitality to the Jewish community, MPs, peers, their staff and others working in Parliament — including journalists.

That tradition has continued to this day with the Commons’ Jewish Speaker John Bercow playing a prominent role at the service, now regularly led by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.

None of us involved in the annual ceremony, however, will ever forget the personal warmth, kindness and great generosity shown by the Lord Martin to us Jews in Parliament for giving us a home to celebrate Chanucah.