February 2012 : " History and Modern Economy of Korea " talk by Hang Jin Chang                                            
At our lunch meeting on 2nd February, a young lawyer, Mr. Hang-jin Chang, treated Probus ’83 members to a fascinating panorama of Korean history from the 8th century AD to the present day, accompanied by videos, which can be seen at www.kscpp.net under multi media. Mr. Chang is a solicitor working for Linklaters, one of Britain’s largest legal firms, but also represents Korean Spirit and Culture Promotion. He explained that Korea had been 200 years ahead of Europe in the use of moveable metal type for printing but his illustrated talk began with a phenomenonal Buddhist book the “ Tripitake Koreana “prepared using some 50 million carved wooden blocks in the fourteenth century. The blocks are so sharp that they can still be used today. The book when printed would take some 30 years to read. This amazing feat was achieved by the voluntary work of over 50,000 woodsmen, scribes and carvers. Mr. Chang then told how after the Korean War his country was virtually destroyed but without major outside help, the same dedication enabled the people to build up world leading positions in steel, shipping and now IT. As an example , every school was equipped with broadband, many no longer used textbooks and the country enjoys the highest broadband use and delivery speed in the world.

January 2012 : "John Betjeman - Poet and Performer” talk by John Heald                                               
Unusually, club members  were entertained by a voice “from beyond” at their luncheon on January 5th as their speaker played recordings of the late Sir John Betjeman reading his own poetry and talking about his life. John Heald, founder member and past Chairman of the Betjeman Society, said he did not wish to give an academic lecture but just to chat about the poet and to allow him to speak for himself via recordings. He said that Sir John had claimed that he was “not a particularly good poet but had just struck lucky”. However, he had been held in high esteem by poets such as Auden and McNeice and had been able to touch both young and old.

As well as his verse he was famous for his appreciation of architecture both old and new. We heard a recording of him praising Guildford for its “handsome” High Street and fine modern cathedral and he fought to preserve The Red Lion Hotel. His valiant fight to save the best examples of Victorian architecture, especially St. Pancras, is only now fully appreciated. It was a revelation that on the outbreak of the Second World War he tried to join the Royal Marines, who thought he was a bit of a “lunatic”. He served in the Civil Service including a spell on intelligence duties in Dublin. After the war he flourished as a poet and a radio and TV personality. He was known as a gentle and kindly man but could be surprising; when asked late in life if he had any regrets he replied “not enough sex”!

December 2011 : Ladies Christmas Lunch Meeting  -                                                                                
"Queen's Messengers - the World's most exclusive courier service", talk by Lt Col J.M.C Kimmins              
Members and their Ladies enjoyed a fine Christmas lunch on the  1st December at Weybourne House. Guests included the Mayor, Councillor Terence Patrick and his wife Angela, and the Chairman of the other Guildford Probus Club, Mr. Des Persaud and his wife Audrey.

After an excellent meal, members were entertained by a most informative and amusing talk on “The Queen’s Messengers Service, the World’s Most Exclusive Courier Service. The speaker, Lt. Col. John Kimmins, was appointed a Queen’s Messenger in 1979 after 27 years in the Army. He sketched the history of the Service from its foundation by King John in 1199 to the present day. He personally had travelled some 4.5 million miles and visited 60 countries, crossing the Gobi Desert over 30 times. He told of the dangers of hijacking, train crashes, riots and floods that were “all in a day’s work” for messengers. It was a talk that transported his audience to the furthest parts of the globe. The Entertainment concluded with a raffle and prizes for the Ladies.

November 2011 : Club AGM and Harvey Williams Quiz
The Annual General Meeting of the Probus ’83 Club, Guildford was held on 3rd November. The usual AGM business concluded with the retiring Chairman, Dr. David Hemsley, handing the chain of office onto his successor, Mr. Neville Lyons.

Members were then treated to (or perhaps suffered) the now traditional quiz set by Mr. Harvey Williams. These quizzes have been noted for their fiendishness but the compiler had promised to go easier this year. Indeed, he had based many of his questions on items in the latest edition of  “Round & About”, Guildford edition. Many members admitted having read the magazine but it was obvious that few of us had studied it, as local questions on the details of the construction of the Wey Navigation had us all guessing. Some more general questions such as ‘what was the first motoring offence prosecuted in London?’, also proved frustrating. It seems the answer was ‘drunk in charge’. In the end three members tied for first place but their score remains a shameful secret; after tie-break questions failed to break the stalemate, all three were awarded a prize of half price luncheon at the next regular meeting. All in all it was a humbling but instructive experience.

October 2011 Lunch meeting – “The Lighter Side of Policing“ with Ken Exworth
The speaker at the October lunch of the Probus ’83 Club was Ken Exworth whose career in the Metropolitan Police covered 36 years rising from raw recruit to Chief Inspector, including long service on the Police Federation, which represents some 26,000 police officers. Ken kept members entertained with tales of incidents in his career such as being sent as a ‘rookie’ to buy a pork chop at a kosher butchers shop; delivering a baby on the pavement; or breaking up a St. Patrick’s Day fight outside a dance hall which had been oversold.

His service on the Police Federation meant he was involved in negotiations with four Home Secretaries and four Met Commissioners and he offered very interesting insights into their different personalities.  He was awarded the B.E M. for “Meritorious Service”. Since retirement he has been a member of “The Doghouse Club” a group of men dedicated to raising money for the “Sunshine Home”, a residential charity which cares for babies and children who are not only blind, but who also suffer some other serious handicap. At the end of the meeting a special collection amongst members raised £213 for this charity.

September 2011 Lunch meeting – “My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen” with Tony Forward                        
At the September luncheon, members were treated to a most amusing account of the life and work of a professional toastmaster. The speaker, Tony Forward, after a career in the police force where he had risen from a cadet to the rank of Chief Superintendent, became a Toastmaster, performing at functions in the UK, Europe, USA and New Zealand.

He explained the protocol of a Toastmaster’s work and the details of the uniform. His job had taken him to an amazing variety of venues from Buckingham Palace to Ascot Racecourse. He described a number of entertaining and sometimes embarrassing incidents in his career from having to help ladies whose zips had caught in their underwear, to pronouncing Arab or African names with no chance to practise.

Asked if he had ever been lost for words, he recounted, discreetly, the time he had stumbled across a number of elegant Ascot ladies seeking relief behind a hospitality tent. As well as the warm applause of members, he received a cheque for the charity “The White Lodge Centre” in Chertsey, which works with disabled people of all ages.

August 2011 Visit – “The Commandant’s Parade Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst”
On 10th August, a party of 29 people, many of whom were either members of Probus ’83 or their family or friends, attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst for a visit organized by Vice-Chairman, Neville Lyons. The Commandant’s Parade is a full scale event marking the progress of (on this occasion) 767 officer cadets, of whom around a third would be receiving their commissions at the Sovereign’s Parade two days later. The officer cadet course consists of a year of training, and there are three intakes each year.  For the first time, the junior intake joined the parade, along with the band of the Army Air Corps, supplemented by musicians from the Light Cavalry Band. All in all, a most impressive and memorable experience for participants and spectators alike.

August 2011 Visit – “Bowls Match at Merrow Bowling Club”
Blessed with excellent weather our Club fielded 10 players against a similar number from Probus Club of Guildford, in the inaugural Probus Bowls Match held on August 3rd This large number of players’ way exceeded expectation (from both teams!) enabling one rink (4 players to each team) and two triples (three players in each team) to compete. Believe it or not, but the final score came down to the very last end, and even the very last wood bowled. Our team came a valiant second! Final score: Probus '83 - Guildford 43 v Probus Club of Guildford 45.

August 2011 Lunch meeting – “Auctions  & Auctioneers”
Tales of the auction rooms entertained Probus members at their August  4th luncheon. The speaker was Mr. Christopher Hawkings, a fifth generation auctioneer who retired as Deputy Chairman from Phillips auction house, having served for 35 years, conducting sales all over the world. He gave a brief history of the beginnings of auction sales in this country in the 17th century and how He had started his own career with Phillips at the age of 16 as a porter and conducted his first auction in 1960. He told of visits to potential customers, unexpectedly finding valuable china vases in broom cupboards, 17th century dishes in lofts, collections of tea caddies in secret rooms and a painting stolen from H.M. the Queen under a loose floorboard. A most amusing and intersting speaker.

July 2011 Visit  – “The Stanley Picker Collection, Kingston”
Stanley Picker (1913–1982) was born in New York, USA into a family of Russian émigré cosmetics manufacturer’s. In 1938 he established the GALA cosmetics group in England that in the 1960’s-70’s was well known for its various cosmetic brands including Mary Quant. Stanley was a patron of the arts who in 1976 set up a trust to endow two fellowships per year at Kingston University. In the same year he added a gallery to his modern house to display the most important works in his personal collection comprising 20th Century sculptures and paintings. On 28th July our party of 10 including club members, wives and guests were fortunate to be treated to a well informed tour given by the sculptor Mike Smith RA including his personal anecdotes about some of the artists known to him.

July 2011 Lunch meeting – “Why Tunisia?” 
Club members were brought ‘bang up to date’ on the ‘Arab Spring’ and people’s uprising at their July 7th luncheon by an expert speaker in this field. Stephen Day CMG, a former diplomat who had served as Ambassador in Qatar and Tunisia, described the Arab peoples as very diverse, friendly and religious. He sketched the historical background, together with the latest developments in the Middle East and North Africa and stressing  one major problem, particularly in The Gulf area, was the tension between Sunni and Shia Muslims, which he compared to the historical Protestant/Catholic problem in Ulster.  After an informative question and answer session, members left feeling much better informed about the current situation.

June 2011 Visit – “The Aurora Lunch Party”
Nineteen members, their partners and friends had booked for the Club’s visit to tour and lunch aboard the superliner on Monday 20 June. Visiting in four guided mini-groups to sample some of the 939 cabins and public rooms on Aurora’s nine passenger decks followed by an excellent lunch in the spacious Medina Restaurant. As we disembarked at 2.15 p.m. the consensus was that it had been a jolly visit, and a helpful prompt for future holiday plans.

June 2011 Special Event  –  “Golf Match”
On the 14th a June golf match organised by Leslie Cowie together with the Probus Club of Guildford was played at Guildford Golf Club and 4 matches were played of which we lost 3 and drew 1. Further practice is evidently needed. We extend congratulations to Probus Club of Guildford.

June 2011 Lunch meeting – “A Journey across darkest Africa”
At their meeting on Thursday 2nd June Club members were treated by one of their members to a well researched, fascinating, and sometimes disturbing, picture of an expedition into darkest Africa in 1886 - 1889. Hon. Alderman Bernard Parke, ex-Mayor of Guildford, told of how one of his forebears, Thomas Parke, came to be the medical officer of an expedition sent to Lake Albert, after General Kitchener’s murder by the Mahdi, to rescue the Governor of southern Sudan, the Emin Pasha. With tales of cannibalism, sickness and disease and near starvation and many deaths the expedition reached Lake Albert only to find that Emin Pasha had no desire to be rescued!

May  2011 Lunch meeting – “A Taste of Flanders and Swann”
The 5th May Ladies luncheon provided members and their guests with a rare feast of nostalgia where the Guests of Honour were Michael Alliott, Secretary of the Probus Club of Guildford, and his wife, Rosemary. The entertainment was a celebration of the much-loved songs of Flanders and Swann provided by Messrs. Stanley Griffiths and David Lane. The duo were in excellent voice as they took their audience down memory lane to the Fifties and Sixties with songs about the “The Honeysuckle and the Bindweed”; “The Gnu”, “The 97 Horsepower Omnibus”, “The Gasman” and, finally, everybody joined in the touching love story of the “Hippo-pot-amus” with its splendid chorus of “Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud”. A great afternoon!

April 2011 Lunch meeting – “The Fascinating World of Dictionaries”
There was much chuckling at the April 7th lunch meeting when the members were presented with the 19th century term - A snollygoster meaning an unprincipled person, especially a politician, who is motivated in all things by personal ambition and greed rather than admirable principles of duty and self-sacrifice. This and other amusing and descriptive terms were offered by our speaker Mrs Susan Purcell, a Lexicographer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, in her talk entitled: -The Fascinating World of Dictionaries which explained the history of their origins and development and usage in todays internet age.

March 2011 Lunch meeting – “Felons and Fingerprints”
Our speaker Michael Carrigan gave an interesting talk on March 3rd about the background to fingerprint technology, together with various amusing anecdotes from his long career in this field. Michael told us that the first fingerprint identification system was developed in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in 1890 and established the basis for analysing the corrugations, ridges and forms (loops and whorls) found on our hands. There are over 90 “deviators “ or ridge characteristics on a human finger, all unique to that individual and even identical twins “ will differ in their print marks.  Within the UK there are ca. 60 million sets of fingerprints on record and ca. 5,000 crimes are solved each year based on fingerprint technology, not withstanding the complementary advances in DNA analysis. All in all a most entertaining speaker.

February 2011 Lunch meeting – “A Humorous History of Pipe Organs”
The February 3rd club lunch was a unique event when the club chairman, David Hemsley, also gave the monthly talk to members – a first since 1983 when the club was founded. A scientist by profession, he talked about the more light-hearted aspects of the King of instruments.  Chroniclers in medieval times often illustrated their manuscripts with small animals playing portable organs – they must have had a quaint sense of humour.  From a more practical aspect, David spoke about church organs that had secret cabinets with liquid sustenance for the organist during services. The talk was enlivened by snippets of the most popular and well-recorded organ works.

January 2011 Lunch meeting – “10 Downing Street and its Inhabitants”  
The traditional Christmas Ladies Lunch having been “snowed out”, members and their ladies enjoyed a New Year luncheon on January 6th. As well as good fare, fine wines and a raffle there was an unusual and enjoyable talk by Mark Forester, a retired civil servant, who had worked for many years inside number 10 Downing Street and gave us some interesting and amusing insights into the buildings’ history and its political occupants.