After a long summer break, the Family Finances Forum starts its Autumn season next Thursday, 15 October, with a presentation by Patrick Lalor on “Artificial Intelligence”.
This topic has had a high profile in the media in recent times but do we fully understand what it is and, more importantly, what it can do to help in our day-to-day lives?
Patrick will briefly describe how Generative AI works and then discuss the lessons learned from his personal experience, including a range of examples of how it can be used to help with everyday life. (Remember, at present, AI is free to use on such Chatbots as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, so why not take advantage of it?)

As usual, we begin gathering for tea, coffee & biscuits at Weybourne House (GU2 4DR) from 9.45am onwards and the meeting starts at 10.00 a.m. To cover the cost of hiring the room and refreshments, there is a charge of £4, which can be paid on the day or, preferably, by Bank Transfer prior to the meeting.

The next Probus ‘83 Lunch at Weybourne House will be on Thursday 1st October 2026.

October Meeting Talk

Our speaker is Ian Worley who is described as an ocean sailor, speaker and entertainer.
A stockbroker by profession he has still managed to sail all his life including racing
around the world. He has been speaking about his experiences and other maritime
topics for nearly 50 years including several appearances on Grandstand with Frank
Bough. In the last few years he has spoken to more than 180 different audiences
including two talks to us.

Ian’s topic is “The Battle of Waterloo – a close run thing“. He will illustrate and explain
just how close events at the time really were and how we all nearly ended up with
different problems today.

The next Probus ‘83 Lunch at Weybourne House will be on Thursday 3rd September 2026.

Our speaker will be Lorimer Burn who has had a 40 year career flying planes and helicopters both in the RAF and commercially. Since his retirement he has been speaking widely on aviation themed topics.
His talk is entitled “Flying from the Pilot’s Point of View”. Lorimer will enlighten us as passengers, regardless of whether we turn left or right on boarding and on what is happening in an Airbus cockpit from departure to landing back at Heathrow.

Please note that the next Probus ‘83 Lunch at Weybourne House will be on Thursday 6th August 2026.
 

Our speaker will be David Bickerton talking about Parents at War (1939/1945).

This is a very personal presentation about his parents’ courting and wartime experiences. The information was gathered from research and letters discovered only after their deaths.
 
David Bickerton is a civil engineer who since retirement has enjoyed researching his own ancestry along with that of about twenty others.

The next Probus ‘83 Lunch at Weybourne House will be on Thursday 2nd July 2026.
 
Our speaker will be Bob Sinfield talking about George Chisholm, The Gentleman of Jazz. This is the fascinating story of a man from his boyhood in a part of Glasgow that made the Gorbals seem upmarket to a 50-year career in jazz that earned him the OBE and saw him work with everyone from Ambrose to Armstrong, from Goodman to the Goons, from Sinatra to Superman.

John Coleman writes:

Our speaker will be Peter Stammers and his talk will be about: When London Buses Went To War.

His talk will describe how the buses and staff were ‘volunteered’ and operated to transport soldiers to WW1 service. He will include personal recollections from
his own family.

The new Tax Year and ISA Season have started but wars in Iran, Ukraine and Gaza, plus the problems in the Straits of Hormuz and Trump’s Tariffs, have confused many of our investment strategies, so it’s fortunate that we have a Guest Speaker at the next Family Finances Forum on Thursday, 16 April, who will consult his extra large crystal ball to try to answer the question “Where do we go from here ?“

As usual, we begin gathering for tea, coffee & biscuits at Weybourne House (GU2 4DR) from 9.45am onwards and the meeting starts at 10.00 a.m. To cover the cost of hiring the room and refreshments, there is a charge of £4, which can be paid on the day or, preferably, by Bank Transfer prior to the meeting, using the usual details.

The next Probus ‘83 Lunch at Weybourne House will be on Thursday 2nd April 2026.

Our speaker will be Major (Retd) Paul Whittle.
 
Paul has a background in banking but don’t let that put you off. He was also a Freeman of the City and saw service in the Territorial Army in the Royal Corps of Signals. Since then he has been a travel lecturer for twenty years and has a keen interest in military and railway histories and has spoken to Probus’83 several times before. 

He will talk on a wide-ranging tour of Peru, including offshore islands, the Amazonian Rain Forest, the fabulous Inca Ruins at Machu Picchu – and a ‘spot of bother’ with illegal gold miners!

We can learn more about Inheritance Tax, including the suite of “IHT 400 Forms”, (which must be completed before Probate can be granted), by coming to next Thursday’s (19 March) Family Finances Forum, when our Guest Speaker will explain the intricacies of the IHT regime.

As usual, we begin gathering for tea, coffee & biscuits at Weybourne House (GU2 4DR) from 9.45am onwards and the meeting starts at 10.00 a.m.  To cover the cost of hiring the room and refreshments, there is a charge of £4, which can be paid on the day or, preferably, by Bank Transfer prior to the meeting, using the usual details.

Note that wives, partners & offspring are always welcome to these sessions.