Annual Meeting - 7 March 2012

It was AGM time again on Wednesday 7th March, but our regular monthly meeting came first. Our retiring president Jean Lewis reminded us that it had been a special month for our group as we had just celebrated our 20th anniversary -- a relatively new WI certainly but a most successful one with the largest membership of any in Berkshire. We celebrated in style with a fabulous lunch at Moor Hall attended by the Berkshire Federation president and several past members who had moved away but returned to the fold for the special lunch as well as most of our 75 members.

After lunch we were amazed, amused and entertained by conjurer Bertie Pearce whose sleight of hand was second to none. All in all an enjoyable time for everyone. At the meeting our attention was drawn to a few forthcoming events. The Spring Council meeting is to be held on 20th April at which Ruth Daniel will collect her winning tropy for the Golden Jubilee Cup. An archive day is to be held at the Berkshire Record Office on 26th March and will involve a tour of the Record Office and some superb speakers including one of our founder members Greta Dixon. Our own group is planning an outing to the Avebury Stone Circle and a coachload of our members have booked to go. But back to the AGM. Our retiring president Jean Lewis gave a summary of the activities of the past year followed by the financial report of our treasurer KathPinto who also gave an explanation of the work of the ACWW which to put it briefly is to help and support women in 3rd world countries in every possible respect.

Val Hewett was unanimously voted in as our new president much to the relief of our members who had feared that our group might have to fold up if no one was willing to take on the role. The committee was then voted in en bloc.Flowers were presented to new and retiring officials. The meeting then closed and we will meet again on April4th when the speaker will be a Mr Churcher who will talk about Improving Your Memory. That should draw a good attendance !

Postcards of the Great War - 1 February 2012

The President, Jean Lewis, welcomed members to this our 20th Anniversary meeting. From small beginnings in 1992 we have grown to be the largest Institute in Berkshire and so we really felt we had something to celebrate. Jane Parnell and Ruth Daniel made birthday cakes which were appropriately iced and decorated by Ruth. Jean Lewis cut the cakes and photographs were taken to mark the occasion. We are looking forward to our 20th Anniversary Lunch at Moor Hall which will be attended by present, past and founder members and by Mrs Judy Williamson, Berkshire Federation Chairman.

Kath Pinto drew our attention to a new WI initiative against reforms to legal aid which aim to remove support for women affected by domestic violence. She urged us to write to Ed Vaisey MP, expressing our concern. Ruth Daniel’s winning Olympic Pennant design has been submitted to the organisers of London 2012 by Lord Coe, from whom she had received a congratulatory and encouraging letter. Ruth is to receive her award at the Spring Annual Council Meeting in Newbury in April and it is hoped that a group of us will be able to attend. Anne Wale is hoping to organise a trip to Avebury Circle and Manor in May.

Following our coffee break and copious helpings of delicious birthday cake, Edward Dixon gave an entertaining and informative talk on ‘Postcards of the Great War’. We now know that a collector of postcards is called a ‘deltiologist’ and that, after stamps and coins, postcards are the most collected items in the world. They were first produced in 1870 but the layout that we know today with a picture on one side and the reverse divided in two for the message and address, only emerged in 1902. ‘Naughty postcards’ are the ones everyone knows, designed by Don McGill – who was fined for obscenity! How times have changed! Charity cards were important during the War, a bit like our charity Christmas cards today. Propaganda cards were also printed, such as one portraying the murder of Edith Cavell, an act which caused such outrage around the world. During WW1, postcards were sent by family and friends specifically to boost the morale of soldiers and no fewer than 12,000,000 were sent in one week!! The soldiers also sent cards back home to reassure their loved ones that all was well, although of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Edward has collected some very moving and beautiful examples – some of them were embroidered often with decorative flower designs and some of these more expensive ones were never posted but kept until after the War. French postcards were often somewhat explicit! Delivery to the Front averaged three days which seems quite remarkable…

Jackie de Bromhead delivered the vote of thanks and we all agreed that this had been a very interesting talk contributing to a very happy birthday meeting. Our next meeting will be the Annual Meeting on Wednesday 7th March at Cookham Dean WI Hall.

My Sister Ruth Ellis - 4 January 2012

It was a full house for our January monthly meeting with 49 members present

Our president Jean Lewis opened the meeting welcoming two new members and encouraged us all to learn new skills in the New Year. An air of anticipation was building up as our 20^th anniversary lunch in February is fast approaching and those of us who had not already bought tickets were told that today was our last chance to do so.

The Berkshire Federation at last gave a much deserved plaudit to Ruth Daniel for her win in the Golden Jubilee Cup with an article in the Berkshire News praising her many talents. Nominations for the new committee were invited as fresh blood would be welcome.

The Christmas meeting had proved popular as usual and over £300.00 pounds was made from the raffles.

' My sister Ruth Ellis' was the tile of the talk that followed and we fully expected to see an elderly woman but it transpired that the speaker was Monica Weller , a ghost writer of the book in collaberation with Ruth's sister Murial. Monica had certainly done her homework and had spent several years of meticulous research into this complex case. Most of us will have remembered the sensational case of Ruth Ellis who was convicted of the murder of her lover David Blakely and subsequently hanged. Ruth, a divorced mother of two, nightclub hostess and part time prostitute was convicted after an open and shut trial during which the defence lawyers had nothing to offer. Crucial evidence was withheld. The Smith and Weston service revolver used in the shooting was large gun and it would have been impossible for Ruth, who had small hands weakened by rheumatic fever, to hold the gun steady let alone shoot accurately at a target. Moreover no blood stains or oil from the gun were found on Ruth's person. Although she admitted her guilt Ruth had been known to lie.

She had had another wealthy lover, Desmond Cussen , the original owner of the gun who was a crack shot and it was he who had driven Ruth to the pub in Hampstead where the murder took place . Was it possible that he had pulled the trigger? Was there an establishment plot to eliminate Ruth because she knew too much about the famous and infamous people in her circle ?. She had been a friend of Stephen Ward who was probably a pimp as well as a double agent and had drawn Ruth into the world of espionage.

Our speaker had certainly uncovered a big picture of deceit, lies and dodgy names and addresses and we were left with the feeling that crucial defence evidence was withheld at the trial and no attempt was made to follow up subsequent information that may have aquitted Ruth. What an intriguing story-so much to speculate on. Our speaker left us to draw our own conclusions and urged us to read her book of which she had multiple copies with her and of course achieved many sales.

The meeting closed after some probing questions. At our next meeting on 1^st Feb Edward Dixon will talk about postcards of the great war.

Working at Heathrow Airport. - 2 November 2011

Fifty members attended our November monthly meeting and were welcomed by our president Jean Lewis. She reminded us that contributions for Christmas raffle prizes are now due and informed us that the BFWI were running another Christmas Quiz in aid of their funds.

Our donation of £200 to the Alexander Devine childrens hospice was gratefully received and a letter of thanks was read out. The AGM of the National Federation will be in April at the Albert Hall and we will send a delegate. Our recently formed singing group received the thumbs up after the inaugural meeting when we sang a lot on old favourites and at our next gathering we will be singing carols. Plans for our 20^th birthday celebrations are gathering apace and tickets for the lunch at Moor Hall are now on sale . We will also have a well known conjurer so it should be a memorable event.

We have had some really amusing speakers over the year but Sheila Kennedy must surely surpass any. A feisty attractive lady she was something of a stand up comedienne and regaled a receptive audience with her often hilarious account of her working life at Heathrow Airport. Even as a child she had an ambition to work at the airport and she more than realized this ambition.

She worked for Pan Am and also for BA mainly on the information desks and in Customer Liason and later became a " Hunter " a team sorting out problems on the airport floor. There is no doubt that she empathized with people and made many friends with the travelling public. She featured largely in the BBC TV programme "The secret life of the Airport ", but confessed that she herself hated flying and was happier with her feet on the ground.

She left the airport for 5 years and changed tack completely buying boarding kennels in Wales where she devoted her life to four legged friends. Here she joined her local WI and started to give talks . But the lure of Heathrow was too strong and when her father had a stroke she sold the kennels and returned to live in West Drayton to care for him and eventually returned to the airport to work as an 'Auntie'.
A lovely funny lady - we never stopped laughing.

We meet in December at Maureen Lawrence's house, a social event where quizzes, big raffles and mince pies are the highlights.

Working with Ex-offenders. - 5 October 2011

There was a lot of business to get through at our October meeting and our president Jean Lewis started with an impassioned plea for someone willing to stand as president next year when she retires. As no committee member is willing to take on the job, members were asked to give the matter some thought with the view to co-opting a willing candidate onto the committee. We will hope for the best because otherwise our thriving group is in danger of folding up.

Some excellent news. Ruth Daniel has won the WI Golden Jubilee Cup for her design for a pennant with an Olympic theme. She came 1^st out of 80candidates, a 'stunning design ' according to the judges. Congratulations Ruth.

All the money we made from activities at our Garden meeting will be donated to the Alexander Devine Childrens Hospice. There was more about the successful resolution of Saving our Libraries. Our inveterate campaigner Kath has more details and advertising material. Planning for our 20^th birthday celebrations are gathering speed and a lunch with entertainment is to be held at Moor Hall in February.

Our treasurer reported a healthy bank balance but announced that subscriptions for next year will go up again and that we will be allowed to keep considerably less than half for the needs of our branch.

The subject of the talk was 'Working with sex offenders' and two representatives of a local charity called HTV Circles that takes a holistic approach to tackling sexual crime came to explain their methods. The offenders helped by the Circle have all been convicted of serious sexual crimes and have served full sentences without parole. These people are often sociopaths, inadequate, hugely isolated and lonely. They were much vilified in prison, often attacked and even killed by other prisoners. The idea is that when released they have a strong circle of support so that even hardened offenders can be helped by the highly trained volunteers with the object of bridging the gap between the said offenders and the communities. Thus they can be safely managed if not cured. The late lamented News of the World and similar papers were seen as unhelpful as their lurid headlines only drove sex offenders underground and it is important that The Circle should know where they lived in the area in order to 'manage' them. In the view of one of the speakers libido reduction by chemical methods or castration was not used enough.

Opportunites were given to ask questions but clearly with such an emotive subject more time could have been given.

The meeting was closed and the subject of the talk at the next meeting on Nov 2^nd will be

'Working at Heathrow Airport'.

Gardening with Perennials - 7 September 2011

There was a good turnout for our monthly meeting on Sept. 7th. Fifty members and a few visitors attended, probably due to the popularity of our speaker who had visited us several times before.

Jean Lewis started off in good form with not one but two anecdotes and welcomed us back after the summer and about the summer the least said the better.

The visit to Lord Carrington's garden had been enjoyed despite the rain and miraculously our own garden meeting in Audrey' lovely garden was a knockout with temperatures in the 80s.

Our various sales and the raffle at this event raised exactly £200 which will be donated to a local charity. Several suggestions were made for a suitable charity but the outcome will be decided at committee level.

A petition with the objective of saving local libraries ( the chosen WI resolution this year ) was passed round and signed by all. Certainly a worthy cause.

Our RBWM local planning group has requested that we send a member to a planning workshop to be held on 3rd Oct. Our representative will be Mary-Lou Kellaway and we are urged to send suggestions and opinions to her. Geneviève Usher , our very talented singer was a soloist at 'Glyndebourne in the Barn' at the Old Barn in Purley. The local NHS Foundation Trust has sent an SOS via our Berkshire WI Federation for help in supplying emergency packs of toiletries for patients admitted urgently to A&E who have been unable to pack a bag first.

The special interest groups gave their reports and there is good news for our singing hopefuls. The newly formed singing group will have their first monthly meeting on 22nd September.

Planning for our 20th birthday celebrations have been going on behind the scenes and a date has been set for Feb 15th next. More about that later.

Our speaker, Brian Davis, winner of a full set of RHS show medals including Chelsea Gold
is always received with great enthusiasm here. His talk was entitled ' Gardening with Perennials' and he showed us his own colourful slides with his thoughts on suitabity for different planting sites and soils. He also gave the lowdown on gardeners enemy no1, thso nasty slugs and snsils. Apparently it is the little slugs that come up from underground, tackling the roots before making inroads on those succulent shoots. Although always entertaining Mr Davis was possibly a bit more subdued than usual, probably because he was waiting for an operation on his ear which was giving him some pain.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 5th October and will be entitled ' Working with Ex-offenders.

A Transcontinental Bike Ride - 1 June 2011

There were a few announcements to make at the start of our June monthly meeting. The annual draw for a bursary to Denman WI College was made and the winner was Annie Panton. Tickets for the National Federation raffle were on sale and an appeal was made for books and plants to sell at our summer garden meeting in August and also for good quality raffle prizes.

Our attention was drawn to several arts and crafts activities to be held shortly in the Berkshire area and also to a literary lunch at Denman College.

Our very talented Ruth Daniel has entered the WI Golden Jubilee Competition and has made a pennant with an Olympic theme ; it is made of cloth with a most striking design for which she has copyright. Good luck to her.

Our speaker was Mary Bryant, a feisty and articulate woman who with her partner embarked on a 9000 mile bicycle tour visiting 15 countries and 3 continents. It had been her lifelong ambition and having retired could see her objectives more clearly. So in 2002 they set off on bicycles made specially for the trip. After the ferry to Calais they crossed France and via southern Europe made for Greece, Turkey and from Istanbul took a flight to India and thence to Burma where they followed the course of the Irrawaddy marveling at the ancient temples on the way,

The main focus of her talk was S.E.Asia. Vietnam they found stunningly beautiful with a highly literate population; Laos a very poor country relying on foreign aid as did Cambodia which was desecrated by years of war. One of the big tourist attractions in Cambodia is the huge old temple complexof Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world dating from the 12 th century.

Everywhere was full of interest as displayed on a slide show, Strange to us with our obsession with Health and Safety were the ramshackle buses and taxis filled to the scuppers with people and animals lumped together , insde, on the roof, clinging to the sides and even on the driver's lap and frantically overtaking each other at breakneck speed on bumpy dirt roads. What a nightmare!

Of course they found the going hard on these roads . And their bicycles were weighed down with sleeping bags,tents and utensils , the tyres often sticking to the road in the heat. But they triumphed and their experiences are recorded in Ms Bryant's book “Four cheeks to the wind” .

The next meeting on July 6^th will feature a talk on “ Mercy Ships “