Speaker Secretary Fred Knopp reports:

For our first meeting in 2020, we welcomed Brian Cumming MBE as our guest speaker to talk about the history and his life as a Chelsea Pensioner in the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Brian was very easy to listen to,  and it was an interesting subject delivered with humour.

Briefly,  the the history of the Hospital it was commissioned by King Charles 11 in 1682, and to be designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. The building was completed in 1692 and in the succeeding years there has been many additions and alterations.

He was a career soldier and spent 33 years in the Royal Corps of Signals.

His involvement with the Royal Hospital came about by accident, his dear wife Pauline had died and his daughter asked him to join her in Australia which he was reluctant to do, when one day whilst walking he met a Chelsea Pensioner dressed in his Scarlet uniform he stopped,  talked and was invited to visit which he did.  Impressed by what he saw  he applied,  met all the criteria to be a member, over 65 and clean millitary record, after all why did he need a four bedroomed house.

He is now thoroughly involved in the life of a Chelsea Pensioner and has become an ambassador travelling far and wide raising money for charity.

His talk was well received and he answered many points that were raised.

He was introduced by our Chairman Barry Calder and a warm thank you was given by Neville Lyons. 

John Coleman sends the following message to Probus ’83 members:

(Outgoing) Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports (for the last time!) :

On January 9th, we welcome as our speaker, Brian Cumming MBE GCStG, a pensioner from The Royal Hospital, Chelsea. A native of Plymouth, Brian was educated at Plympton Grammar School and enlisted into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1950 at the age of 18. 

He had met Patricia three years earlier and they were married just a few days before he was posted to Egypt, leaving her behind in Devon. He did not return until he was 21, but after that, Patricia accompanied him on all his missions. Brian served for 33 years in the Royal Corps and then spent 14 years in welfare work at the Ministry of Defence, for which he was awarded an MBE.

Following the death of Patricia in 2009, his application to enter the Royal Hospital was accepted. “The moment I arrived, I knew that it was the place for me”, he will tell us. Apart from his work as a tour guide at the Hospital, Brian is an excellent and entertaining speaker. He will present an overview of life in a Grade One listed residence for Army veterans, which was built in 1682, on the command of King Charles II, under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren.

It promises to be a presentation, which is not to be missed.

Oh yes! Brian is also one of us, as he is a Past-Chairman of the Drake Probus Club, (now merged with the Plymouth City Probus Club).

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

The preparations for the Lunch had been going so smoothly, but then a couple of spanners landed in the works.

First, the office of the Mayor of Guildford advised us that, with great regret, the Mayor would be unable to attend, but that his Deputy would be pleased to lunch with us instead. Then, at 9.30am on the day itself, I switched on my mobile ‘phone to find that I had three voicemails from the husband of Margaret Watson, our after-lunch entertainer, saying that she was ill and would be unable to play her harp for us. However, he had been able to find another harpist, who could deputise for Margaret.

So, the Deputy Mayor and a substitute harpist – in the event, did we feel short-changed? Absolutely not!!

We already knew Deputy Mayor Councillor Marsha Moseley and her Consort, Councillor Nigel Manning, from Christmas 2017, when Nigel was the Mayor and Marsha was his Consort and, this year, we greatly enjoyed their company once again.

However, we thought that the renowned concert harpist, Margaret Watson, would be a very hard act to follow, but Heather Wrighton’s performance was delightful and received many plaudits.

Heather started playing the harp at the age of 6 and eventually graduated with honours at the Royal Academy of Music. Currently, she freelances as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. In the set which she played for us, Heather included lilting melodies especially written for the harp and musical items, such as ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and ‘Bring in the Clowns’. She finished with a jazz number – yes, jazz! – which superbly demonstrated the surprising versatility of her instrument.

However, there was no surprise when, following Chairman Barry Calder’s vote of thanks, there was very warm applause for Heather, both for stepping in at last moment and for the quality and enjoyment of her performance.

Our Neville Lyons appears in print in the Winter 2019 issue of the national Probus magazine with an article, reproduced below, on the pioneering work done by the catering company, J Lyons & Co, introducing the world’s first business computer. Neville’s particular interest is that, not only is he related to the Company’s co-founder, Sir Joseph Lyons, but he is now a trustee member of the Leo Computers Society charity, with responsibility for publicity.

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

For our Ladies’ and Guests’ Christmas Lunch on December 5th, we welcome back the renowned concert harpist, Margaret Watson. When she performed for us two years ago, the reaction of the members and their guests was unanimously favourable and so, by popular demand, we have invited her again.

Margaret first began playing the harp when she was only fourteen and is now one of the busiest professional harpists in the South East. She has played for royalty, including HRH The Princess Royal, and at venues such as the City Guildhall, (Margaret is a Fellow of The Guild of Musicians and Singers), Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Opera Houses and the Royal Courts of Justice. She has also worked for the BBC and Netflix filming for documentaries.

Margaret makes period costumes to wear when she plays historic venues such as Hever Castle, Polesden Lacey, Brighton Pavilion and Battle Abbey and she hopes to do the same when she visits us in Guildford.

Also in attendance at the Lunch, will be the Mayor and Mayoress of Guildford, Councillor Richard Billington and his wife, Linda. 

It promises to be a very pleasurable event, which, hopefully, members will make every effort to attend with a guest or by themselves. (There are currently five unaccompanied members who will be dining, so you will not be alone if your partner is unable to be present).

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

It was early in the morning, at 7.30am, that David Skillen and Lynn, (his wife, co-driver and business manager), left their home in Belper, Derbyshire, to drive the 170 miles to Guildford to lunch with us and for David to speak to us about Zeppelins.

Eschewing the use of written notes, David’s smooth, professional commentary to his fully illustrated presentation held everyone’s attention throughout.

He was not averse to throwing in the odd controversy from time to time. Was Leefe Robinson the first British pilot to shoot down a Zeppelin during WW1 as most people believe? Well, no, because he shot down a Schütte-Lanz airship, not a Zeppelin. (Not all vacuum cleaners are Hoovers and not all German airships are Zeppelins!).

David also told us about Count von Zeppelin’s initial designs for an airship in 1874 and how, by 1910, it was being flown commercially. During WW1, of course, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as reconnaissance and bombing aircraft. However, few survived the war, because very large, slow-moving objects, containing huge amounts of highly inflammable hydrogen gas, became sitting ducks for The Royal Flying Corps’ B.E.2c  and Camel aeroplanes armed with incendiary bullets.

Of the 84 Zeppelins built during the war, over 60 were lost to enemy action, the weather or accidents and most that survived were then deliberately destroyed by their crews in 1919. A small number of Zeppelins have been constructed since then for commercial purposes, the most modern of which now contain the inert gas, helium, instead of hydrogen.

At the end of the presentation, Club members had many questions to ask, before Past Speaker Secretary, Ian Bull, gave the very well deserved vote of thanks.

A number of our seasoned bowlers decided this summer to accept an introduction to a different bowls format – short mat bowls.
This proved most successful – so successful that this may well become yet another “activity” offered at Probus ’83.

Our fellow club members Mike Jordan and Holger Marsen play short mat at Ripley and Ripley kindly hosted this first short mat experience on September 19th 2019.
We offered the opportunity to learn short mat bowls to Guildford Probus too. They joined us for some enjoyable coaching by the Ripley players, then accepted our challenge to a proper match. Somewhat surprisingly, Probus ’83 managed to beat Guildford Probus by 10 shots A trophy was presented to Ian Mackrell, Probus ’83 captain, by Guildford Probus President, Brian Taylor.

A return match has already been agreed for next summer. We are looking to see if other fixtures can now be scheduled.

Mike Jordan demonstrates how to deliver the bowl.

Two short mat “rinks” – indoors on a rather expensive, specialist carpet.

Look how tricky it is to get close to the “jack”(small yellow ball).

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

Our speaker for October will be David Skillen. Members will remember that, last year, David, (and co-driver, his wife, Lynn), came from Belper in Derbyshire to give us a presentation about The Gettysburg Address. They are repeating the journey this year, when David will talk to us about ‘Giants in the Sky’, the Zeppelins in World War One.

During the 35 years that he spent in the Civil Service, David ran training programmes on public speaking and regularly addressed audiences ranging from five to five hundred people. Since retiring five years ago, he has travelled extensively across the UK giving fully illustrated talks to a variety of groups such as Probus, W.I., U3A and the National Trust.

In the night skies above Britain in 1915, people saw huge, silver, cigar-shaped objects flying across the country seemingly at will – the Zeppelins. It was the start of the first strategic bombing campaign in history. In the talk, we will look at the Zeppelin and David will tell us how they were built and flown and how the Royal Navy and the Royal Flying Corps, (later the RAF), defended Britain against them. Also, with the aid of copious illustrations, we will learn how the Zeppelin developed and find out about the men who trusted their lives to these majestic, yet incredibly dangerous, machines.

It promises to be an entertaining and enlightening presentation about a fascinating piece of historical warfare.

Speaker Secretary Ian Rutter reports:

Our speaker for September was Andy Thomas, who gave us a presentation about a place close to his heart – the town of Lewes. He reminded us that it is still regarded as the County Town of Sussex, even though the county is now split into three separate administrations; East and West Sussex and the unitary authority of the City of Brighton and Hove.

The first part of Andy’s talk encompassed a brief description of the town, which was developed on a group of iron-age mounds. The Victorians flattened some, but the castle still stands atop one that remains. He also gave us a flavour of the history of Lewes, with particular reference to the seventeen Protestant martyrs, who were burned at the stake during the persecutions by the Catholic Queen Mary in the period 1555 to 1557.

This lead on neatly to the Lewes Bonfire Celebrations, reputedly ‘the largest in the world’. How did they become so big? For a start, there are not just one, but seven bonfire societies, each putting on a parade and firework display. They are joined at various times by another twenty to thirty bonfire societies from all parts of Sussex. The festivities do not just commemorate the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, but also the death of those seventeen martyrs of circa 1556. Although the streets are covered in litter and firework detritus when the celebrations finish in the early hours, by the start of  working hours a thorough cleaning job has ensured that the people of Lewes can go about their business as if the celebrations had never happened.

Andy’s collection of photographs, almost all taken by himself, vividly illustrated the talk and it was no surprise when he received a very warm round of applause, proposed by Past-Chairman, Ian Hills, in his vote of thanks.