28 April 2021 Editor: Sally Bundock Dear All In this issue: What’s New We are all now moving forward hopefully to branches being able to meet up again. Please do forgive me including the news item on page 4 but it is to serve as a reminder that we are not out of the woods yet by any means, so we still need to take. Because things are opening up or will be from June onwards I just wanted to let you know that regrettably this publication will have to be less frequent, as I will have to spend more of my time visiting branches and trying to open up new ones. On the plus side, it will be good to meet up with folk again. I would like to use this space to remind you about our Facebook page. Many of you I know already participate but if you have not tried it yet then the invitation is there for you. Also, may I remind everyone that the Conference event is planned for October in Manchester and I hope to see many of you there. As you may have guessed I have a special interest in saving our planet and its flora and fauna. I’m continuing to promote my book Daniel’s Magic Tree to support Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital and was able to send £100 to them last week so thanks to those of you who have already purchased the book to help me with this. If you would like now to support with future donations, please just visit the Amazon website to buy the book. And finally, the answers to last issue’s quiz. 1. Nicola Sturgeon 2. Ed Milliband 3. Boris Johnson 4. Nigel Farage 5. Nick Clegg 6. Donald Trump. Update on Live Talks Remember folks. Registration is pretty easy - please just visit www.mirthy.co.uk/NHSRF and you will just need to enter your name and your email address for the talk you wish to register for and then you will receive an email from Alex with a link to click at the start of the talk. Live chat starts just after 10.45am with the talk starting at 11am. This together with the Q&A session makes an enjoyable experience. Remember replays are available on demand. Assuming a member registers for a talk they will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the talk live. This same link can be used for 7 days to watch a replay of the talk on demand. Details of the next talk are shown on page 6.letter. The next 4 talks planned are: 4 May – 10.45am Endangered Wildlife and Conservation – Shelly Lozano 18 May – 10.45am Eyam: The Plague Village – Chris Green 1 June – 10.45am Under the influence – Andy Smith 15 June – 10.45am Tommy Cooper – Steve Short Page 1 of 6 Dad, are we pyromaniacs? Yes, we arson. What do you call a pig with laryngitis? Disgruntled. Some lovely puns from Monica Sado, Why do bees stay in their hives during winter? Swarm. Brent Branch If you’re bad at haggling, you’ll end up paying the price. Just so everyone’s clear, I’m going to put my glasses on. A commander walks into a bar and orders everyone around. I lost my job as a stage designer. I left without making a scene. Never buy flowers from a monk. Only you can prevent florist friars. How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer. I once worked at a cheap pizza shop to get by. I kneaded the dough. My friends and I have named our band ‘Duvet’. It’s a cover band. Dear All I lost my girlfriend’s audiobook, and now I’ll never hear the end of it. Please be Whyadvised is ‘dark’ that spelledall employees with a planningk and not to c? dash Because through you thecan’t snow see in athe one dark.-horse open sleigh, going over the fields and laughing all the way, are required to undergo a Risk Assessment addressing the safety of open sleighs. TheWhy assessment is it unwise must to share also yourconsider secrets whether with ait clock?is appropriate Well, time to willuse tell.only one horse for such a venture, particularly where there are multiple passengers. Please note that permission must also be obtained in writing from landownersWhen I toldbefore my their contractor fields mayI didn’t be entered.want carpeted To avoid steps, offending they gave those me not a blank participating stare. in celebrations, we request that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered a noise nuisance. Bono and The Edge walk into a Dublin bar and the bartender says, “Oh no, not U2 again.” Prison is just one word to you, but for some people, it’s a whole sentence. On this day by Susan Gunning, The Royal Marsden Branch Births: 1442 Edward IV, King of England 1461-1483 th 1758 James Monroe, 5 President of USA 1908 Oskar Schindler, German industrialist who saved many Jews from the Holocaust 1916 Ferruccio Lamborghini, car designer 1922 Alistair MacLean, novelist Deaths: 1865 Samuel Cunard, founder of Cunard shipping line 1945 Benito Mussolini, Italian Dictator 1992 Francis Bacon, Painter 28th Events: 1770 James Cook lands at Botany Bay, Australia April 1789 Mutiny on HMS Bounty 1892 First performance of ‘Carnival Overture’ by Antonin Dvorak 1923 Opening of Wembley Stadium 1935 Opening of Moscow’s underground railway 1937 First commercial flight across the Pacific 1965 Debut performance by Luciano Pavarotti, La Scala, Milan Page 2 of 6 The Royal Air Force was formed at the end of the First World War. Steve Greaves recounts the history of the RAF and its development links with Cambridge. Sir Winston Churchill with Alex Henshaw 1942. Picture: Imperial War Museum. For more than 100 years the Royal Air Force has Another RAF link to Cambridge is Marshalls played a crucial role in the defence of Britain and of Newmarket Road, Cambridge who have enjoyed a British military interests abroad and for most of that hard-won contract to service RAF planes for many time people in Cambridgeshire have been closely years, working more recently on the Lockheed C-130 involved with development and maintenance of the Hercules transport aircraft which are often seen service aircraft. gracing the skies over Cambridge. From the early days of the RAF story Marshalls, one of the largest employers in Cambridgeshire has played a significant part in its Cambridge, were also heavily involved in developing history and one of the many famous names to and maintaining the Vickers Valiant aircraft which emerge from this close association was was part of Britain’s V-Force bomber command Cambridgeshire man Alex Henshaw, who was born in during the Cold War years, the others being the Peterborough in 1912 and became a flying legend Vulcan and the Victor. Development and during the Second World War. maintenance were not the only roles performed by Marshalls during the RAF’s Second World War duties: Mr. Henshaw was originally a prizewinning their flying training organisation had at one point racing pilot but during the War he became one of around 180 aircraft, mostly Tiger Moths and the RAF’s leading test pilots and is said to have Magisters, and a maximum of 240 pupils at one tested up to 10% of all Spitfires and Seafires time. The company trained more than 20,000 pilots including 20 aircraft in one day, mostly in foggy and instructors for the war, of which 700 were conditions. He would also demonstrate the Spitfire trained before the Battle of Britain. to visiting dignitaries, such as Sir Winston Churchill, and once flew the length of Broad Street in Birmingham at low level to demonstrate its capabilities. He is also the only pilot known to have performed a barrel roll in a Lancaster bomber, a feat that was considered by some to be reckless or impossible due to the aircraft’s size and relatively modest performance. Mr Henshaw, who died in Newmarket in 2007 aged 94, considered enlisting in the Royal Air Force at the start of the Second World War, but instead he became a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong. He subsequently took the rank Work taking place on Valiant aircraft at of sergeant pilot to fly a fully armed Spitfire to Marshalls of Cambridge. defend the factory, if needed, although he was never Picture: Marshalls, Cambridge called upon to fly in combat. Contd. overleaf Page 3 of 6 The RAF was formed on April 1st1918 when King George V signed a Royal decree which announced the arrival of the Royal Air Force, formed by merging the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. Its arrival on the world stage saw it become the first, and thus the oldest and largest, independent air force to operate separately from control by either the Army or the Navy. The RAF story actually begins in Bristol when A Box Kite aircraft, one of the first to be built in the Bristol and Colonial Aeroplane Company quantity and a forerunner to the earliest RAF developed and built their Bristol Box Kite machine in training planes. July 1910. It sold for £1,000 and 78 were built, but with no way of defending themselves they were One of its most famous success stories was mostly used for observation and training. of course the triumphant Spitfire, which played such a decisive part in the Battle of Britain. The plane was Things changed when Lancashire designer developed from a prototype designed by Reginald Roy Chadwick began work with Alliott Verdon-Roe Mitchell, who originally named his plane the Shrew.