The Royal Society In this edition of St George Celebrating our past – Eric Kennington – artist in looking to the future peace and war News from the Battle of Britain Memorial St George and the Crusades Civil Defence Fears for Kent countryside

St GEORGE FOR ENGLAND December 2020

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF St GEORGE – The Premier Patriotic Society of England Founded in 1894. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Patron: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II £3.50 BATTLE OF BRITAIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”

Official Newsletter of the Battle of Britain Historical Society 2013 Ltd

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”

Head Office: Calais View, Channel Way, Fairlight, East Sussex TN35 4BP

Editor and Managing Director: Graves Registrar: Membership Secretary: John Pulfer BEM JP Steve Maddock Margaret Pulfer Tel: 01424 814866 Tel: 01895 676004 Tel: 01424 814866 Email: [email protected] [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Historian: Nick Hall Tel: 01427 668122 Battle Officia Email: [email protected] of B l NewAUTUMN / WINTER 2017 ritain Histo sletter of the rical Society 2 Issue 156 013 Ltd 100 years of the RAF We are now recruiting new members to join the “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” Head Of fice: Ca lais View Editor , Channel W and Managing ay, Fai John Pulfer B rlight, East Su Tel: 01 EM JP Di 424 814866 rector: ssex TN Always Remembered … Never forgotten Email: john Graves Reg 35 4BP Battle of Britain Historical Society 2013 Ltd. atbo Steve M istrar: [email protected] addock Historian: Tel: 01895 676004 Official Newsletter of the Nick Hall stevewmaddock@ Membership Secretary: Margaret Pulfe Battle of Britain Historical Tel: 01427 668122 gmail.com Society 2013 Ltd Email: scam Tel: 01424 814866r pton.1943@ Email: bobh btinternet.com [email protected] Members will receive bi-annual 24 page colour newsletters. SPRING / SUMM ER 2018 Issue 157 The Society has four main aims… • To ensure the Battle of Britain is never forgotten •

Head Office: Calais View, Channel Way, Fairlight, East Sussex TN35 4BP

Editor and Managing Director: Graves Registrar: John Pulfer BEM JP Membership Secretary: Steve Maddock Margaret Pulfer • To erect plaques in places where the “few’ were educated • Tel: 01424 814866 Tel: 01895 676004 Tel: 01424 814866 Email: [email protected] [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Historian: Nick Hall Tel: 01427 668122 Email: [email protected] AUTUMN / WINTER 2018 Issue 158 • To look after the final resting places of the “few” • • To erect granite memorials to the “few” •

LIFE MEMBERSHIP STANDARD MEMBERSHIP CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP UK Life members - GB £400 UK members under 18 Years - GB £12 Annual Membership Corporate Members - GB £500 Overseas Life membership - GB £500 UK members over 18 - GB £24 Annual Membership Corporate Sponsor - GB £1500 Overseas members all ages - GB £36 Annual Membership

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Margaret Pulfer Email: [email protected] Tel: 01424 814866 Web address: www.battleofbritain1940.net


 

 
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Contents

Vol 18. No. 3 – December 2020 Front Cover: HM The Queen pictured paying tribute to the Unknown Warrior inside Westminster Abbey. Credit: PA:Press Association 4 From the Chairman 5 Editorial 7 My England St George for England 8 Trust Reports The Official journal of The Royal Society of St George 10 Branch News Overseas Reports The Society stands for: 18  I Respect for the Monarchy; Duty to our Sovereign and our Country; 19 Elgar’s Music I The cause of England and Englishness. In accordance with our Constitution, the Objects 20 Stan Laurel – an English of the Society are: Comic Genius 28 News One To foster the love of England and to strengthen Civil Defence returns to the UK England and the Commonwealth by spreading the 30 knowledge of English history, traditions and ideals. Battle of Britain Memorial Two 32 To keep fresh the memory of those, in all walks of life, who have served England or the 33 A Gibraltar Memory Commonwealth in the past in order to inspire leadership in the future. 36 The Saint and the Crusaders Three To combat all activities likely to undermine the strength of England or the Commonwealth. Letters to the Editor 37 Four To further English interests everywhere to ensure that St. George’s Day is properly celebrated and to provide focal points the world over where English 20 men and women may gather together.

38 Nottingham’s proud tribute 22 Our leading musicians strike to Robin Hood the right chord 40 All Saints’ Church Service 23 King Coal deposed 42 50/50 Club 24 Lockdown Library 47 Membership Affiliations 25 Book Reviews 48 Branches List 26 Eric Kennington as a Wartime Artist 22 50 Shop Window

26 18 38

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 3 FROM THE CHAIRMAN

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF St GEORGE thank Liz and Jade so very much for all The Premier Patriotic Society of England their hard work. They have risen to every Founded in 1894. challenge we have given them over the Incorporated by Royal Charter. past few – often difficult – years, and have Patron: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II emerged triumphant every time. They are Chairman: Joanna M. Cadman always cheerful, always enormously helpful, Published at: The Royal Society of St George, RSSG, P.O. BOX 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN, England and run an incredible workload with never Telephone: 020 3225 5011 a complaint. They have my enormous E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rssg.org.uk admiration. Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ At the end of a year that has made us all RoyalSocietyofStGeorge Twitter: @RSStGeorge Join us on LinkedIn – the Royal Society of StGeorge reassess our values, I turn again to the work Official Group of the Society and how we make ourselves Opening times: Monday to Thursday, 10.30 am to 3.30 pm relevant and useful in a rapidly changing Editor: Stuart Millson world. It is our job and our pride to celebrate Editorial Address Rumbeams Cottage, Ewhurst Green our past and the history and traditions that Nr Cranleigh, Surrey, GU6 7RR have formed this island and its people, but Telephone: 01483 268627 E-mail: [email protected] we have a duty to our country to look to the George Andrews, FCIB FCIS FCIArb – President Emeritus future. Climate change, population dispersal, human rights, access to education, wildlife Vice Presidents Chairman’s report to the AGM, September The Earl of Aylesford JP 2020, by Zoom. conservation – these are some of the issues The Lord Cope of Berkeley PC that must be addressed by us all, and I would The Lord Butler of Brockwell KG GCB CVO S OUR LAST AGM was in Clifford James Trowse – Past Chairman like to see the Royal Society of St George December, I am effectively only Mr B M Cronan take the lead, stand up to the challenge and Mr C P Fairweather reporting on nine months of the Mrs Esme Robinson A play our part in securing the world for our Society’s year – and what a very odd nine Sir Henry Paston-Bedingfeld Bt children. His Excellency Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton GCB months it has been. Compared with my report RAF (retd) last year, when I talked about the busyness To the future – whatever it might hold Past Presidents: William R Firth of our 125th anniversary events, I can say And so – what will next year hold for the John Clemence QPM nothing about Society events this year as Society, and for us all? The promise of a Members of Council neither they, nor branch events, have been Chairman – Joanna M. Cadman vaccine gives us some hope of a gradual Deputy Chairman – Nick Dutt possible due to the pandemic. I regretted the return to normality, but it is not going to Vice Chairman – Christopher Houghton loss of our Cadet parade at the Cenotaph Honorary Treasurer – Alastair Clement FFA FFTA particularly keenly, it is the highlight of our happen overnight, we still have a long road to Honorary Secretary – Michael Riley walk and a long winter to get through. I, and Chaplain to the Society – Revd. Roderick Leece year and an opportunity to properly show General Secretary – Elizabeth Lloyd our honour and respect to those who gave up my Council , will continue to hold you all in Website Manager – Christopher Houghton our thoughts. North of England Co-ordinator – Michael Riley their lives for us. Youth Representative – Dennis Stinchcombe MBE We have, however, continued with our We will stand by our pledge to challenge Membership affiliations – Lloyd James normal business. We have kept in touch with what we believe to be wrong, and to uphold Schools and Projects – Nick Hinchliffe what is right. To this end, I have recently City of London – Paul Herbage, MBE our members as actively as we can, through Young Professionals Network – Cdr James Nisbet newsletters, phone calls and the Journal. We written to the National Trust to question their Young Professionals Network – Farah London extraordinary decision to warn the public of Council member – Lt. Col. Leslie Clarke have stood up for England where appropriate, the potential affront to their sensibilities when Administration Centre staff most particularly over the demand to remove General Secretary – Elizabeth Lloyd evidence of our forebears, no matter how they are entering a national treasure that has, Membership Secretary – Jade King much they did for our country, if there was a at some stage, been owned by someone who Charitable Trust Members just might have had links to colonialism. The Chairman – Bob Smith hint of wrongdoing in their family’s past. My Secretary – Shirley Hankers letter to the Prime Minister on this was well people that we owe so much to are being Treasurer and Trustee – Lloyd James received by our members. diminished by this political correctness, to Trustee – Nick Dutt no value at all to anyone. Our country has Trustee – Dennis Stinchcombe Our new membership form on the website Trustee – Chris Houghton has attracted new members as, I believe, an extraordinarily rich and diverse history, Trustee – Michael Riley has our stance on facing up to adversity and as does every country in the world, and it is Trustee – Nick Hinchliffe there be explored, to understand and to learn Special Responsibilities celebrating our country, with all its flaws, Standard Bearer – Lt. Col Leslie Clarke through these difficult months. We will, of from, not to be shied away from. Deputy Standard Bearer – Major Robert A Peedle MBE TD course, always sadly lose our more elderly Nor, in my view, is it helpful or reasonable Yachting Association – Bob Smith members, and miss them dearly, but are very to hide the bust of Rudyard Kipling, given to Photography – Fred Pearson and Georgina Burges pleased to see others standing up to join our Winston Churchill by our Society, which was This Journal is sent free to all full members and is available for purchase at £3.50. Opinions expressed in articles or ranks. I am very pleased to say that we have on display at Chartwell, but no longer. Why advertisements are those of the authors and advertisers been able to make some successful new does the National Trust perceive a simple and the contents do not necessarily reflect editorial or affiliations this year, with cadet units and bust of the writer of the Jungle Book to be so official RSSG views. This Journal may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the Editor. schools, and look forward to the chance to offensive? I have written to ask for it back, if Opinions expressed in articles or advertisements are those meet them next year. it is so unwanted. of the authors and advertisers and the contents do not necessarily reflect editorial or official RSSG views. We Turning to our accounts, we made a slight reserve the right to refuse any advertisement or article surplus last year, of £1,606, despite having Christmas without giving a reason. E&O.E. written off old stock. It was correct to write I wish for you, and for us all, the chance to Design and Reprographics: Jim Duggan it off in 2019, but the acquisition of stock see family and friends this Christmas, good Tel: 01233 632969. Mob: 07714451952 relates to the past and, if disregarded for the health, that so-important hug from someone Printed by: The Gemini Print Group, Shoreham-by-Sea Tel: 01273 464884 purposes of looking at 2019’s performance, you love, and a safe journey towards sunlight we had in fact a fairly satisfactory year. in the New Year. God bless you. ISSN Number: ISSN 2046-8369 I would like to take this opportunity to Joanna

4 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND EDITORIAL

OME YEARS AGO, in the days not just a photograph of the Montreal when The Royal Society of St George Branch celebrating at a magnificent Quebec Shad its headquarters in Folkestone, ballroom, but an inspiring article (with I undertook a very pleasant afternoon of pictures) about a civic procession and research there – looking back into the service in one of our great cathedrals . . . archives and enjoying a pot of tea with our Llandaff Cathedral, to be precise, with the then Chairman, Cliff Trowse, not to mention South Wales Branch of The Royal Society Freda and the wonderful ladies who staffed of St George parading in all its finery. the office. Imagine it: a South Wales Branch! Leafing through old copies of our It seems that in the days of old, our magazine proved to be particularly Society and its English, or rather – British, stimulating and informative – especially message “travelled well” – with Welshmen the discovery of an edition from 1912. (In and overseas Scots, and folk in French- Our editor with a certain Admiral those far-off days of imperial certainty, speaking Canada and many other places our publication was entitled – The English across the globe, identifying with our and it is certainly not my intention to stray Race – a name, which if used today, would cause. And so it was with some sadness into this arena. But – our aims as a Society probably induce howls of protest from the that I read, on my recent holiday to Wales, clearly proclaim our desire to defend not politically-correct!) However, on closer an article in a regional newspaper there just England, but all the ties of history and inspection, “The English Race” wasn’t about a growing campaign for Cymru endeavour which make up Kingdom and entirely about the descendants of Anglo- to break away from the union of the Commonwealth. Saxons, or retired colonial colonels living United Kingdom – an echo of similar Now is the time for us to reach out, in Tunbridge Wells. In addition to articles stirrings north of the border. What has to build up, once again, the strength of about England’s bell-ringing traditions at brought us to the situation in which the England and the broad unity of the peoples country churches, there were also pieces very essence of the Queen’s realm – that of the United Kingdom, the British Isles and on the polar expeditions – and even on natural brotherhood of England, Scotland, the many dozens of countries – from Kenya the Scots and Ulster “diaspora” in North Wales and Northern Ireland – seems to to Canberra – which make us what we are. America. I then turned to some of the be in so much doubt? This, of course, is a God save the Queen! editions from the 1930s and discovered, complicated and dare I say, political issue, Stuart Millson Walk for NHS Charities HANK YOU SO MUCH to railway station to climb the hill to the least I will feel that I have done something everyone who has so generously Royal Surrey – and then back. I hadn’t useful in support of those incredible Tsupported my 100 mile walk to raise really appreciated before that it is harder people who are going to have the hardest funds for NHS charities during the last to come downhill than to go up, when winter of us all. If you would like to make week of October. And a very great thank your legs are weary! The weather wasn’t a donation, the link to the giving site is: you to Rosemary, wife of the President of particularly kind to us, it rained at some https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ Seahaven branch, who kept me company – stage every day, some days more than TheRoyalSocietyofStGeorge. and kept me going! others, but the autumn colours were lovely I know it has been a tough year for us We achieved our aim of 100 miles over and we were treated to the occasional all, and we all need help and support, but five days, walking twenty miles a day to glimpse of sunshine. nevertheless this is the best cause I can think and from the Royal Surrey Hospital, along So far, I have raised just over £2,500 of this year, and anything we can do to be of the old railway line and the River Wey for NHS charities, a lovely start, but I use must be for the good. footpath, only leaving that at Guildford would dearly love to achieve more. At Joanna Cadman, Chairman

Corrections and clarifications Editor apologises for this error. We also stated in a caption The August 2020 edition contained a letter which, due to that the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne was an editorial/layout oversight, appeared to come from the the Battle of Britain ‘Monument’. Again, our apologies for pen of Member of Parliament, Tom Tugendhat, MBE. The this mistake.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 5 The Beauty of England

Wensleydale, in the North Riding of Yorkshire My England Carl Portman [email protected]

ERENDIPITY. I LIKE THAT WORD, I always have. One definition of it Sis to find something good without looking for it. Well that certainly happened to me. Banbury, in Oxfordshire still has a very small market in the square, twice a week. It is mostly fruit and vegetables now but occasionally some extra tables are given over for those lovely old curiosity shop artefacts. You know, copper kettles, military badges, stuffed owls, improbably ugly hats and even old handguns that are not supposed to work. One chap had several trays of old postcards and I walked past. Yet something compelled me to return to his stall. After donning gloves (Covid-19 essential, mandated by the stall holder) I started to flick through his collection. The usual fare was on offer. Old sea-front images from the 1920s, kids licking ice creams on the beach, a man with a fine thick black moustache on a Penny Farthing, some kind of very badly stuffed animal that looked like a cross between a weasel and a fox, and even a lady juggling sausages. Don’t ask me what that was all about. I was coming to the end around but 23 April? Sorry my dear. Go to does he ride on a horse that has a deformed of my curiosity rope when one card almost your room at once and ruminate as to what neck? I might add on a personal note that literally leapt out at me. you have done. the green beast has two legs whereas most The image was obviously St George There is a little more prose, all rather dragons seem to have four, even if two are and the Dragon. I sort of recalled seeing it delightful. I chuckled at the line ‘Just before shorter. The mighty dragon is not that much before somewhere but I was unsure. I had Easter I had the last of a non-stop series bigger than the horse and I reckon for the to purchase it of course, so for one English of workmen’. I can feel a Ronnie Barker right girl I would have a go at wrestling Pound I walked away with a little gem. sketch coming on here. with it myself (the dragon, not the horse). Upon my return home I scrutinised the back Then I looked at what was printed on Anyway, I shall leave you with that thought. and someone had written to a friend in 1985. the back of the card. It says that this is ‘St Apparently, the painting is on display in Don’t we all love to read these cards? Who George and the Dragon’ by Paulo Uccello the National Gallery in London so I might wrote what, why and to whom? We like to (c 1397-1475). Now I know that many just have to pay a visit. It could be quite know. It is history after all. of you will be familiar with this painting a journey. After all, as Tolkien wrote, ‘It This one was from ‘Caroline B’ to ‘Ruth’ but I did not realise that there was also a simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if apologising for not writing sooner. She poem written about it discussing several there aren’t any dragons’. opined ‘Having failed to send you an Easter peculiarities. I encourage you to seek out the greeting I got this card for St George’s Day, poem Not my best side by U. A. Fanthorpe, Nil desperandum but missed again alas’. The card was dated where he observes that the dragon is on a 25 April. Tut tut Caroline! I can forgive you string and spilling only a little blood. Why for missing Easter, after all the dates move also is the knight clean shaven and why

2021 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Saturday, 24 April – Cenotaph Annual Service of Remembrance and Cadets Parade May – service at our Founders Church, St Andrews at Wraysbury, followed by lunch at The George. Date to be confirmed Friday, 17 September – Battle of Britain Luncheon – RAF CLUB, Piccadilly ALL DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE DUE TO CONSIDERATIONS OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 7 TRUST REPORTS

Match-funding grant presentation from The Royal Society of St George, Seahaven Branch, to the Youth Counselling Project

ARLIER THIS YEAR the Seahaven Florence House, in Seaford, to meet some and three primary) are all delighted not only branch purchased £350 worth of of the Youth Counselling Project trustees for the great work the charity undertakes Eequipment to enhance the work of and hand the certificate over. We naturally but also because it does not impinge on the The Youth Counselling Project in four socially distanced as much as we could but schools’ already tight budgets. Seaford Schools. This was matched by the still enjoyed a lovely tea of scones, jam, and Retired head teacher and now one of the Charitable Trust of our Royal Society which clotted Cornish cream before going outside trustees, Susie Silvester says “I witnessed in total gave this charity £700 worth of for the formalities. on a daily basis the positive impact kit. We had just received the RSSG Trust’s The Youth Counselling Project is a counselling can have. Some children come Grant Certificate, to award them, when the fairly new charity and its aim is to provide to school from difficult situations at home. COVID-19 lock down closed everything trained Counselors, in schools, to work with Counselling has a direct impact on their down and it has not been until this month, vulnerable children and young people who education because they are emotionally in September, that we could safely arrange for find school a challenge. The head teachers a better place to access the curriculum and the presentation. On Thursday we attended of the four Seaford schools (one secondary learn.”

Branch President Laurie Holland presents the RSSG Charitable Trust’s Certificate to The Youth Counselling Project trustee Maureen Colleary watched by (left to right), Trustees Christine McAllen, Josephine Stone(Treasurer to the Trust) and Susie Silvester. With Laurie was Seaford branch Vice Chairman, Ann Abbott and Treasurer, Jan White. Out of picture behind the camera was Bob Peedle MBE, RSSG Seaford branch Chairman.

8 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND CENTENARY�

Black Tie Banquet in the Guildhall� to be preceded by a Thanksgiving Service in� the Church of Saint Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall on� Saint George’s Day� 23rd April 2021� Please book the date and contact our� Honorary Events Secretary Alan Cook� by email at [email protected]� to register your interest in attending� one or both events.�

Collaborations Matter

The Royal Society of St George and the English Business Council are now collaborating to increase awareness, build relationships, enhance membership engagement and ultimately provide additional branch funding.

For more information please check our website at www.englishbusinesscouncil.com for more information.

You can email [email protected] We are looking to open branch offices across England and around the world.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 9 NEWS FROM AROUND THE BRANCHES

BATH he consulted a surgeon at Bath Hospital. playing a selection of water music he had During the latter years of his life Handel specially composed. The king was enchanted Pam Preece had problems with his eyesight becoming and asked to meet the composer. Lo and Earlier in the year there were some who completely blind for the last six of them behold, it was his erstwhile employee. got very heated over certain statues. It was which meant he then had to rely on others to Although back on good terms with the felt that because the persons portrayed had write down his music. monarch it was not to be plain sailing from undertaken, during their lifetimes, actions and then on. One thing was that musical tastes Private tuition activities deemed unacceptable by modern changed and audiences wanted something views and standards their likenesses should He was born 23 February 1685 in Halle, lighter than Handel was producing. Another not be publicly displayed. Consequently, Saxony, to a gentleman in his sixties and problem was that he made powerful enemies. those considered offensive were toppled, his much younger second wife. George was Although he had become a British citizen, daubed with paint or quietly hidden away. their only living child. From an early age he he was still regarded by many as of the same showed an interest in music and his doting race as the heartedly disliked king. Then, too, Bath Abbey mother bought him a clavichord that he Handel was not afraid to make his opinions I was then interested to see a letter in the happily played on hour after hour. This did loudly known on controversial subjects. As a Telegraph which read that if this trend were not please his father, also named George, result, posters advertising his musical events to continue: ‘Bath Abbey (a fascinating who had risen from humble beginnings to an were destroyed and rent-a-mobs caused repository of monuments to empire builders) important position in the town as a barber/ trouble outside the theatres. He was often would be almost completely denuded.’ Bath surgeon and, as such, had great ambitions on the verge of bankruptcy and suffered Abbey! Really? I immediately turned to my for his son and jobbing musician wasn’t one nervous breakdowns. In spite of all these Bath Abbey guide book which told me next of them. Nevertheless, George senior took problems he was producing oratorios with to nothing about the statuary it housed but, his son to the home of the Duke of Saxony rousing choruses by the end of his life and something did catch my attention. ‘At the (maybe Mum had had a word) whom, when died at the top of his trade. He was buried in foot of the south wall is a tomb provided by hearing the boy play the church organ, was Westminster Abbey. Sir William Waller for himself and his first impressed enough to arrange for private Tobias Smollett wife, Jane who died in 1633. His mutilated tuition. However, it was not long before effigy lies by her side. Sir William became George was ordered back to his studies. Twice, it seems, Tobias Smollett slated Bath a leading general on the parliamentary side in print. 1752 saw the publication of: An in the Civil War 1642–6 but lost Bath to the Essay on the External Use of Water This Royals in a crushing defeat at Roundway Handel visited Bath several was a harsh criticism of the city’s medicinal Downs (where I assume Sir William lost times, mainly as the guest waters. It was not a best seller. Whereas, The his life) in July 1643. Some of the Cavalier Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, written soldiers who were garrisoned in the city of his patron, the Duke of shortly before he died, was. In it, a Mr vented their fury against him by battering the Chandos Bramble takes a group of family members face of his effigy and lopping off the hand of and servants on a tour of the UK. The novel its sword arm at the wrist.’ It seems getting consists of letters the various characters write angry at inanimate objects is nothing new. to their friends and family left behind of the Kapellmeisterto Elector of Hanover sights seen and experiences they have along George Frederick Handel His father’s death released young George the way. In one letter, Bath is described as; I understand that music was very important from any obligation and off he went to Italy ‘the very centre of racket and dissipation.’ to the elite of Bath a few centuries ago, to which was then the capital of the music There is more in similar vein culminating the extent musical breakfasts were held. If world. There he composed an opera which with the declaration; ‘the hospital to be one you had any musical ability you could join was performed to great acclaim but he that I imagine none but lunatics are admitted.’ the orchestra. It didn’t matter if you had left was just one in a country of many talented Gosh! your instrument at home; one could be hired musicians, so when the Elector of Hanover Tobias Smollett was born in Scotland to at the venue. It sounds great fun! Which offered him employment as Kapellmeister a well-to-do family and attended Glasgow brings me to George Frederick Handel, (musical director) at his court, he accepted. University. to train as a surgeon but aspired a prolific composer, whose works were First, he asked for and obtained a leave of to be a writer. He was undoubtedly a talented much performed during his lifetime but had absence during which he came to London, and creative man. He wrote poetry, novels, largely fallen into obscurity by the end of not a very pleasant place at that time. It’s non-fiction and translated, among other the 18th century. Handel visited Bath several streets were unclean, to put it mildly, morals works, ‘Don Quixote’ into English, plus times, mainly as the guest of his patron, were lax, corruption high and robbery with being the editor of a periodical or two. From the Duke of Chandos who had interests of violence an accepted fact but there was a his output he was obviously extremely some sort in and around the city and once, niche in the market for good music which hardworking and consequently fairly probably during the course of a social visit, Handel was happy to fill. He wrote an opera successful but what caused his somewhat which was equally as successful as that he jaundiced outlook on life? Perhaps, it was had written in Italy. his marriage to the heiress daughter of a Duty called and he returned to the court Jamaican landowner which produced only a of the Elector in Hanover. Not for long, fraction of the large dowry he was expecting. he asked for and received another leave of Maybe it was lending an impoverished writer absence and back to London he came this money who then point-blank refused to pay time to stay; a source of embarrassment it back when his circumstances improved, when the Elector of Hanover in turn came leading to a fist fight. Next came a prison to London to be crowned George I. To sentence for libel and, most tragically of all, overcome this, when the new king was on his only child, Elizabeth died at the age of the Thames in the royal barge on his way to fifteen. Tobias and Mrs Smollett retired to Effigy of Sir William Waller and his first wife, on a dinner engagement, Handel followed on Italy where he died in 1771, aged fifty. He her tomb in Bath Abbey in another barge complete with orchestra lays at rest in the cemetery at Livorno.

10 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND BOLTON Congratulations to Bolton Branch for its dedication to Remembrance

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 11 FENLAND The photograph on the left was taken on VJ Day, 15 August 2020. The Standard was dipped at 11am outside Standard Bearer Aubrey Smith’s House on the Main Road into Wisbech, with Chairman, Brian Kierman. Pictured right, three Members of Royal Society of St George, Fenland branch at the war memorial in Wisbech on Wednesday, 11 November 2020. Centre, Toby North, Chairman RBL, on his left Aubrey Smith Standard Bearer for our branch, on ther right Gregory Heath, Standard Bearer for RBL. Toby North conducted the act of remembrance and the Kohima Epitaph, ensuring all present suitably socially distanced. Wreaths were laid by a number of organisations. That of The Royal Society of St George Fenland Branch was laid by their Chairman Brian Kierman on behalf of all members

GLOUCESTERSHIRE for a New Year Lunch on 10 January, even was founded in 1539 and exists today. that is under threat now. Arrangements Unfortunately William caught tuberculosis Patron: Mr. Edward Gillespie, OBE, for our annual Service, due to be held in of the bone at the age twelve, resulting in Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for Tewkesbury Abbey on St George’s Eve, amputation of his left leg below the knee Gloucestershire Thursday, 22 April, will be continually when he was twenty-five and in poor health President: Councillor Pam Tracey, MBE reviewed and revised where necessary. for the rest of his life. He wrote Invictus Chairman: Mrs. Pat Ayres, MBE Despite the curtailment of Remembrance whilst in hospital in 1875: As the likelihood of members being Day Services and Parades, several members Out of the night that covers me, able to gather for the 2020 Branch AGM have undertaken to lay wreaths at their Black as the Pit from pole to pole, receded from the start of the second wave local church or War Memorial. It is sad that I thank whatever gods may be of the pandemic, the committee decided the commemorations of seventy-five years For my unconquerable soul. to embrace technology and suggest to since VE and VJ Day had to be muted. In the fell clutch of circumstance members it should be held on Zoom. No Nevertheless we did and will remember objection being received, the AGM went I have not winced nor cried aloud. them. Under the bludgeonings of chance ahead virtually on 22 October. This year’s Invictus games for Armed At the start of the meeting we paused to My head is bloody, but unbowed. Forces veterans was postponed and will now remember the members sadly lost since the be held in May/June 2021 at The Hague. Beyond this place of wrath and tears last AGM – Peter Watkins, Joy Hanman, I watched the filmInvictus recently on Looms but the Horror of the shade, Jill Simmons and Patsy Claridge. Patsy had television. It stars the wonderful Morgan And yet the menace of the years been a committee member since 2013 and Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. her contribution and willingness to help Freeman as Nelson Mandela. It covers It matters not how strait the gate, will be much missed. We also remembered Mandela’s election as President of South How charged with punishments the scroll. Don Humphreys, who was Honorary Parade Africa and his attempts to bring the nation I am the master of my fate: Marshal for our St George’s Day Service for together after apartheid. It highlighted I am the captain of my soul. many years. his support, as a way of promoting racial The current officers and committee were harmony, for the national rugby union team, Invictus is now a famous poem but I re-elected and we also welcomed a new the Springboks, in the 1995 World Cup wonder how many can say who wrote it? committee member, Jane Jennings. hosted by South Africa. The Springboks Gloucestershire Branch wishes everyone Whilst holding a virtual meeting was won the Cup. The film and the Invictus the best Christmas possible and good health successful, it’s not a substitute for meeting Games are named after the title of a poem for the future. To quote William Henley, face to face for the AGM or any other which Mandela is said to have kept on a may we go ‘bloody but unbowed’ into a Branch event. The cancellation of all Branch scrap of paper to comfort and inspire him much happier 2021! events between March and the end of this during his decades in Robben Island prison. For further information about the Branch year, although necessary, has been miserable I searched the film credits in vain for the and its (hopefully soon to be resumed) and we hope life will steadily become more name of the poet, because I know it was activities contact Margaret Fuller, Branch normal in 2021. written by William Ernest Healey, who was Secretary, on 01291 625069 or Whilst we have a provisional booking born in Gloucester in 1849 and educated at [email protected] or see the Branch’s at Lilley Brook Golf Club, Cheltenham, the city’s Crypt Grammar School, which page on the National website.

12 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND HALIFAX AND DISTRICT Trafalgar Night on 21 October “It seems that Zoom type communications are now a fact of life in the new environment so many of us face”, comments PP Bryan Harkness of the Halifax and District Branch. Indeed the later branch was very swift to adopt this method of communicating with its members because in the last issue it reported on their first ever ‘Zoom St George’s Day Dinner’. So no change their as months have rolled on and this dreaded Covid seems not to want to depart our shores!

Trafalgar Dinner Conscious of the latter the branch decided that Trafalgar Dinner celebrations would follow the same format. Secretary Geraldine Carter approached our National Chairman Joanna Cadman with an invitation. Joanna gladly accepted. President Steven Leigh MBE, remarked in his opening welcome address, “It is an honour and a privilege to welcome our Members and our distinguished guest Joanna Cadman to this our first ‘remote’ Trafalgar Dinner. So much has changed since this time last year, in those pre-Covid days which seem long-ago and relatively carefree. So it is a credit to our membership that we have adapted to changing circumstances, and undaunted, we have utilised latest technology to gather together to celebrate Trafalgar Day in this manner. I have no doubt that we will continue to run and enjoy our Society through the dark nights ahead, and hopefully in the New Year we will be celebrating St George’s Day just as keenly Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1799 portrait by Lemuel Francis Abbott and enthusiastically as we have celebrated reminder to the members on 21 October that Times the toast was ‘The immortal memory Trafalgar Day this evening, hopefully once they have no hesitation in reproducing it her of Nelson and those who fell with him’. As again though face to face – but time will – with the Chairman’s blessing of course! we know, the second part of this toast no tell! longer forms part of the traditional Trafalgar So as guest speaker Joanna’s toast to The Highlights from the Trafalgar speech Night ritual.” Immortal Memory gave to their members given by Joanna Cadman. But now to the man himself . . . an in-depth reminder of one of the greatest It seems that this toast to Nelson was, Nelson was born on 29 September 1758, of them all Horatio Nelson, who lived from according to the Naval Chronicle, first drunk the son of a Norfolk parson, who was 1758 to 1805. Whilst many of the readers at a dinner at the Green Man, Blackheath, himself the son of a parson and who had will be only too aware and knowledgeable on the 21st of October 1811, but then as inherited his two livings from his father, one themselves on the life of Nelson, Joanna’s ‘The Memory of Nelson’. The first recorded of which was in the gift of Eton College. address was in depth and a fascinating use of the wording as we know it now was A man of some means, he was able to keep in 1813, in a letter from Emma Hamilton, four servants and overwinter in the milder inviting an old friend to join her on the climate of Bath. Nelson’s mother, Catherine, anniversary of the Battle of the Nile, at bore eleven children, eight of whom had Temple Place, where she was living ‘within survived at the time of her death at the age the rules’ of the Kings Bench (in other of forty-two, when Nelson was nine years words, in debtors prison)‘If you come’, she old. promises, ‘we will drink to his Immortal It appears that Nelson first decided on Memory’. a career in the Navy at the age of twelve, The toast was in general use by Trafalgar when he read in the newspaper of his uncle’s Day 1846, when Captain Pasco (who had appointment as captain of the Raisonnable, supervised the hoisting of ‘England Expects’ in 1770, when war looked likely with Spain in 1805 and was now in command of his over an obscure dispute in the Falkland old ship) presided at a dinner on board the Islands. He wrote to his father, who was Screen shot of the Zoom meeting taken by PP Victory at her moorings in Portsmouth then in Bath, telling him that he would like

Michael Steele Harbour. According to the report in The to go with uncle Maurice to sea. His father t

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 13 his medals on display, he was also a prime target for a French sniper and was shot dead. This has been an extraordinary year, one that none of us will ever forget, or wish to live through again. We have been isolated and afraid, we have worried for and lost loved ones, friends and colleagues, we have – and still do – fear for the future. And, combined with the worst pandemic for 100 years and the threat that climate change will make this a more frequent occurrence, we have also had our past torn to shreds in front of our eyes.

Heroes – denigrated by National Trust and Maritime Museum All our heroes, all those that we hold up as examples of courage and fortitude, those who saw us through the worst of times and made our lives possible again, have been examined and found wanting this year. From Baden Powell to Churchill, they have all been stripped of their dignity as they are assessed by cynics and trouble makers The Destruction of L’Orient at the Battle of the Nile, George Arnald and dismissed as colonialists with certain duly wrote to Captain Suckling, who replied practice. He found a wife, Frances Nisbet, links to the slave trade. The National Trust ‘what has the poor Horace done, who is so and brought her home to wait out the has put up warnings in ninety-three of its weak, that he above the rest should be sent peace. properties to ensure that our sensibilities to rough it out at sea? Do let him come; and are not offended by being unwittingly the first time we go into action, a cannon confronted by these monsters. ball may knock off his head and provide for St Vincent and the Nile And now, Nelson! For more than two him at once’. In 1796 he was made a commodore, and a centuries Horatio Nelson has been one of Well, it didn’t, and Nelson showed rear admiral and knight of the Bath in 1797 the greatest heroes in British History. His himself to be a fine seaman. In 1773, at following an attack on the Spanish fleet naval victories, of which there are many, are the age of fifteen, he formed part of an at Cape Vincent. He lost his right arm in unsurpassed landmarks of leadership and expedition to the North Pole, ostensibly to an unsuccessful attack on Santa Cruz that courage. To most normal people he is a truly make observations for the Royal Society, year, but within months he was back in the great Briton, comparable only to the likes but more importantly to find a much fabled Mediterranean, tracking a French war-fleet of Winston Churchill. So perhaps it was northwest passage to India. On his return which carried Napoleon and an army to only a matter of time before the hysterical home after five months – after, tradition has Egypt, only to be devastated by Nelson’s hate mobs came for Nelson, as they have it, apparently attacking a polar bear on an smaller fleet in the Battle of the Nile. for Churchill. But that it should be the ice floe with the butt of a musket – he joined Interestingly, in the film The Dam bosses of the National Maritime Museum a small frigate bound for the East Indies and Busters, Barnes Wallis credited his bouncing who are setting out to review his heroic spent the next two years touring the East. bomb to Nelson, who had bounced cannon status is tragic beyond reason. This isn’t He took ill, probably with malaria which balls off the sea during the Battle of the just a betrayal of a great national character was to return from time to time throughout Nile as a tactic that increased range and – by forcing our past into a straitjacket of the rest of his life, and was sent home, destructive power. political correctness, it’s an assault on the a journey that took six months. He was Nelson went to Naples to celebrate integrity of history itself. very ill, more than once wished himself his fortieth birthday and there met and And Nelson, who gave his life for his overboard, but eventually decided that his began an affair with Emma Hamilton, the country, deserves better. future would be as a hero – and ‘confiding demonstrative wife of the ageing British Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The in providence, I will brave every danger’. envoy, Sir William Hamilton. Immortal Memory. He took this pledge very much to heart. Nelson’s most famous victory was of After service in the West Indies, Nelson course the Battle of Trafalgar, fought on Note from the Chairman – thank you so went on to serve in the Caribbean, where 21 October 1805. Before the battle, Nelson much to Jim Duggan, for the magnificent his strict enforcement of the navigation sent out the famous signal to his fleet pictures he has added to this article. Jim laws, which forbade American ships to “England expects that every man will do his is amazing, not only for his incredible and trade directly with the British West Indies, duty’. Standing on deck during the battle patient publishing, but for his ability to find brought conflict with local officials, who so that his men could be encouraged by the the perfect picture for every occasion. We would prefer to turn a blind eye to this sight of him in full dress uniform, with all are indebted to him. ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE ADVERTISING RATES BY APPLICATION TO HEAD OFFICE The Administration Centre, P.O. BOX 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN, England [email protected] Tel: 020 3225 5011

14 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND THE LEICESTERSHIRE BRANCH dinner, piper, haggis, the full ritual. A we have had to be very careful and I most successful evening. And that was as Chairman and Audrey as our Hon. Leon Spencer, Chairman all that has happened, as various forms Secretary have phoned many members Our branch suddenly went into hibernation of lockdown have stopped us from our several times. I have sent out letters every in March. We cancelled an event in dinners, St George’s Day and Trafalgar month or so to keep members informed. February “to be on the safe side” little Dinner both being cancelled. We are very sad to report that we have expecting what was to come. We had a very Our AGM which was due in May was just lost our President, who was ninety-four successful year in 2019 with events every postponed until May 2021. The carol years old. (See Obituary.) month except during the summer. We had service we have had for many years at a But I am an optimist. I have now been plans for this year which after an executive lovely tenth-century church in December, Chairman for four years (two too many) committee meeting in March cancelled and a social festive supper afterwards has and we have a member who is much everything for the foreseeable future, little also been cancelled. We had several other younger who is willing to have his name expecting that six months later we would events planned for October and November. put forward at the next AGM. We will be still in limbo, and no way of seeing what We hope to have Burns Night again in survive this pandemic, and what ever the the future will hold. January 2021, a pie evening in February “new future” holds, our society will regrow We started the year with twenty of and a Sunday lunch in March. We will from the sad drop in our numbers this year. us going to a traditional Burns Night review the situation after Christmas. Stay safe, keep your distance, and keep With a somewhat older membership smiling.

The late Raymond Mason, Leicestershire Branch President, wife and son Raymond Mason Obituary On 21 September the President of the Leicestershire branch, jazz, and was enthusiastic about vintage cars. He was a very Mr Raymond Mason, died peacefully aged ninety-four years. keen supporter of our Society and was a great family man. Raymond was one of the founding members with his wife of the He had been in ill health for sometime, above all Raymond Leicestershire branch A long retired businessman, who travelled was a true English Gentleman. the world. He was for many years active as a local public servant and served as a local councillor and county councillor. He had Our condolences go to his wife Mavis, his two children and all many hobbies which included his love of music and especially his family.

NORTH DOWNS two local inns, which thankfully, seem to We send our best wishes to all of our have survived the economic doldrums of the friends across the country – and all over the President: Group Capt. Patrick Tootal OBE lockdown period. A Committee meeting can world. Take care, all. Sadly, due to the continuation of the only take place with real ale on the agenda! Covid crisis in our country, our branch Cllr. David Thornewell and colleagues on has not been able to hold any of its usual the Borough and Parish councils continue to events. However, we have continued – as fight for the local greenbelt – David having individuals – to serve our local community, raised a significant amount of money for through the church, and via many charitable the legal fees needed to fight a development activities. application at a local spot known as Forty Our President, continues to work Acres. It is vital to protect such farmland tirelessly for RAF charities and for the and open spaces, and we hope to bring Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne you news of this campaign as it plays out. on the Kent coast. At the time of writing, we (The involvement of CPRE and the London Unable this time to take a group photograph, we are planning to lay our usual wreath at the Greenbelt Council have been extremely thought that readers of the magazine might like East Malling War Memorial; and to return welcome at this critical time for our to see a robust figure of St George… Every garden (in a small, socially-distanced group) to our countryside.) should have one! Picture by Cllr. Roger and Mrs. Mitchell Roger and Mrs. Picture by Cllr. Stuart Millson, The Rev. Nick Williams and Wing Commander Mike Sutton at Councillors Jean Manser, David Thornewell and Stuart Millson with East the East Malling War Memorial, on Remembrance Sunday. The North Downs Malling’s “Unknown Warrior”. East Malling and Larkfield Parish Council Branch wreath was dedicated to ‘The Few and The Fallen provided the funds for this symbol of Remembrance

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 15 SEAHAVEN BRANCH President: Laurie Holland Chairman: Bob Peedle MBE Vice Chairman: Ann Abbott So the dreadful pandemic carries on and apart from following strictly the government guide lines there seems little that can be done. The absence of our monthly meetings with their fund raising ability not only is a blow to social activity but also to gathering the where-with-all to support local charities and worthwhile projects with gifts. To try to build our charity money we had a stall at the Seaford Rotary Boot Fair in September and were able to add £200 to the kitty. We were able to visit the Schools Youth Counselling Service, a local charity set up to help schoolchildren with their problems. We gave them gifts of equipment earlier this year to help their volunteers and the Charitable Trust matched the amount so we The small gathering at the Seaford War Memorial Chairman Bob reads the exhortation at the met the trustees to present the RSSG Trust’s commemorated VJ Day in the presence of the Dieppe Commemoration after laying a wreath on certificate. Town Mayor behalf of the branch VJ Day was commemorated on 15 August the RBL so just recently they have been branch member Rosemary Holland who was with a small gathering at the Seaford War very busy getting the poppies out for shops the walking companion to Joanna Cadman. Memorial in the presence of the Town Mayor. and other outlets in the area to help raise The aim is to raise £5000 for NHS Charities For this we remembered especially two local funds for the appeal. The closure of non- together, by walking twenty miles each day men who were directly involved in the war essential shops in November is going to for five days. It was a great hundred mile with Japan. They were the late Major Peter impede this work but they along with our effort by sixty-seven year old Chairman Gadsdon, MBE, MC, a Seaford Resident and Branch Standard Bearer, Frank Holland Joanna and seventy-six year old Rosemary. Burma/Kohima veteran, and Roger Rothwell, deserve our praise for their great effort in (the team name ‘Sixes and Sevens’ was captured in Singapore, prisoner for four years this respect. most appropriate). There was some but after the war was later Headmaster at atrocious weather, and of course aching feet Tideway School, Newhaven and then Town Sad news. and limbs. Clerk. The Seahaven branch organised this Having lost two of our members as reported On Sunday, 1 November, Chairman event. A small number of our members in the last edition of the Journal we have Bob attended St George’s Church Hanover attended and kept socially distanced. Our now lost a third. It was very sad news to Square in his capacity as National Standard Standard was on parade carried as usual by hear of the death of Joan Willis who had Bearer for the annual RSSG Service. Frank Holland. been a member for many years, always Social distancing was strictly observed and Then on 18 August, Chairman Bob and seen at our events with husband Richard face masks were worn by everyone. Next Standard Bearer Frank attended the very and often with Grandson Rob. She will be hurdle for our branch is to do something much scaled down commemoration of the missed. So this year, because of CV19, we to commemorate Remembrance Day. Dieppe Raid. Chairman Bob laid our wreath have not been able to fully support three We had already planned to lay wreaths and then read the Exhortation. funerals which has made their passing all at Seaford, Newhaven and Peacehaven Events Secretary and Welfare Officer, Liz the more sad. For the third funeral this War Memorials. The Commonwealth Holland, has kept in touch with members year, Frank Holland was present with our commemoration planned for Tuesday, by email and post. This is invaluable work Standard to give a loving tribute from all 10 November had to be cancelled because by Liz so that members do not feel isolated our members. of the CV19 lockdown. This is an annual especially during periods of lock down or event that the branch has taken on from self shielding. She and branch Secretary, Fund raising. the local branch of the RBL to organise Linda Wallraven, have taken on the local Chairman Bob and President Laurie each year, let us hope we can do it justice chore of organising the Poppy Appeal for travelled to the Surrey Hills to take our in 2021.

President Laurie presents the RSSG Charitable Trust Certificate to the Trustees of the Youth Counselling Project supported by Vice Chairman On 18 August the branch was present at the President Laurie Holland and Treasurer Jan White Ann Abbott and Treasurer Jan White Dieppe Commemoration at Newhaven at our Boot Fair stall in September

16 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND SUSSEX BRANCH other branches), if necessary via a zoom different. Indeed for a while we were told meeting. The committee still met for lunch that nothing at all could happen. Eventually Pamela Chaston (Acting Secretary) at The Castle on 21 October, with the men the authorities agreed to a simple ceremony Trafalgar Day wearing their Society ties and we toasted with wreath-laying at the Memorial. The We had planned to have our usual the Society. vicar, Revd. Paul Doick with Assistant celebratory luncheon followed by the Curate Heather Wilkin, gave a short address Remembrance Sunday with a few prayers. Two members of our AGM, as promised a year ago when we Usually this is celebrated in all our churches local brass band Brass Fusion sounded the held our emergency meeting to discuss in and around Henfield. In 2019, St Peter’s, Last Post and Reveille before and after the the future of our branch and appointed our the Parish Church in the village, welcomed two-minute silence, whilst members of the ‘acting’ committee, agreeing to evaluate over 400 people. The service is usually local council stopped the traffic. Horsham the future one year later in 2020. We found followed by a big parade through the streets District Councillor, Mike Morgan said the a suitable venue in a private room in The to the War Memorial with a large brass familiar words of the Kohima Epitaph and Castle Pub in Bramber . . . but then the band and all the uniformed organisations the Exhortation. rules changed with the introduction of the including the children – Beavers, Cubs, Finally the names of the organisations limit of six people, which made meeting Rainbows, Brownies and Guides. laying wreaths were read out as one by impossible. We notified our members Like the British Legion Festival at the one they came forward. Arun Agarwal, and agreed to postpone our AGM until Royal Albert Hall and the service at the Chairman of our Sussex Branch laid ours on January (bringing it in line with most of the Cenotaph in London this year it was all very behalf of The Royal Society of St George.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 17 OVERSEAS BRANCH NEWS

PARIS fighting spirit, the British stiff upper lip and beehives of one of Paris’s very few a soupcon of the French Résistance thrown wine producers followed by lunch at the Senate Dinner 2020 in for good measure: Despite the horror, we president’s eleventh-century watermill La Résistance à Paris pour la St shall never surrender! close by. June sees the Embassy Cocktail George! For our efforts we were granted beautiful and garden party in the grounds of Lord weather, a champagne reception in a suite of Llewellyn’s Embassy, next door to the Senate Champagne Reception and Dinner sumptuous salons overlooking the Senators’ Elysées Palace. In the autumn we host the for St George’s Day private gardens, followed by a seated dinner Charles Spencer-Bernard Longchamp picnic Paris, much like the rest of Europe, was with speeches and toasts to the Queen, to with hampers and champagne at the famous locked-down in April, so no St George’s England and St George. We even sang! Not racecourse’s finishing post, as well as an Day this year. Or so everybody thought . . . Land of Hope and Glory nor Rule Britannia English wine tasting evening. We round off Mais Paris fait de la résistance! We in fact of course but we settled for Jerusalem and the year with the Royal Society of St George rescheduled St George’s Day, just for the the National Anthem… Christmas Party, at the Cercle de l’Union annus horribilis that is 2020, to celebrate our Interalliée. glorious day on 8 September in style at the Change and growth for RSSG Paris We have many plans for our Paris Senate, in the gilded salons of the French Branch branch including a web site, a presentation upper house, overlooking the Luxemburg Charles Spencer-Bernard, RSSG Paris ceremony of our Foundation Charter in Gardens. Rather ironic for a Royal Society 2021 and, who knows, we could even to meet sous les ors de (under the gilded President for many years, very sadly and suddenly passed away three years ago and evolve to becoming a charitable trust in the ceilings of) la République! long term. However, the challenge for the With Covid, Brexit, populism, terrorism, was succeeded by our current president Andrew Simpkin. Since then, membership RSSG in France remains never being able and the tyrannical Paris Mayor Anne to mention Waterloo or Trafalgar. . . Jeanne Hidalgo, you had to be brave to step out has trebled to reach over 150 with as many potential members in the starting blocks d’Arc also remains a bone of contention of a Tuesday night in Paris, and yet, forty Do join us should you find yourself on of our members showed their Churchillian with a majority of Brits and also many French anglophiles swelling our ranks. . . the other side of the Channel, and in the RSSG Paris has become the smartest club in meantime, Cry God for Elizabeth, England town and everybody wants to join! and St George! The number of events proposed has doubled and now includes the President’s cocktail to see in the New Year in January at the Travellers, our St George’s Day Dinner at the Senate, a Garden Visit and lunch – next year at the winery and

Andrew Simpkin speaking at the St George’s Day Senators’ garden Cocktails dinner

Palais du Luxembourg End of evening Salon Napoleon group shot

18 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND ELGAR’S MUSIC The Banner of St George Stuart Millson

in reverse (Olaf converted to Christianity, troubadors, it was no disgrace for a man to was baptised in the Scilly Isles, and later step in front of an army and inspire them set forth on his expeditions to fight for the with a song. His Pomp and Circumstance new religion with great zeal), the spirit Marches, and post-Great War Empire March and action of Elgar’s drama almost lends symbolise this feeling of pride – the artist itself to opera. Noble and dramatic ideas identifying with the fighting man. However, pulse through the score, and the choral the desolation and destruction of the contributions are exciting and point very Western Front filled the composer of Land definitely to the true of Hope and Glory majesty that would with an equivalent come in The Dream The composer saw himself, sense of loss and of Gerontius and The hopelessness. Elgar Kingdom. above all, as a loyal Briton was horrified by the death of a generation, The Banner of St but it was not just George the dead soldiers of our regiments which The year 1897 saw the Diamond Jubilee he mourned. The plight of the cavalry and of Queen Victoria, and true to form, Elgar artillery horses of the Great War – “my responded to the mood of the times with an beloved animals” – affected him: “let Imperial March, and a cantata, The Banner God kill His human-beings”, he wrote in of St George, with words by a fine-sounding bitterness. Victorian fellow, Shapcott Wensley (the pseudonym of writer, Henry Shapcott End of inspiration Bunce): the flag of the Saint coming from The years 1918-19 saw a greater LGAR’S MUSIC REFLECTS the England’s “misty ages”, with “deathless introspection – the Piano Quintet, inspired British spirit, but a sense of loss and heroes” and “glorious deeds of old” by rural Sussex, was said by Lady Elgar Ethe end of glory may also be found in abounding. How different all this seems (who would die in 1920) to represent a many of his great works. from the response which can be expected “wood magic”; and his Cello Concerto David Cannadine’s absorbing collection of from many of today’s leading poets and (probably one of his best-known works) essays, The Pleasures of the Past, contains authors: men and women who would go out is sometimes viewed as a memorial, a fascinating section about Edward Elgar of their way to avoid any identification with perhaps, to a lost England – although and his biographer, Jerrold Northrop Moore. their native land and its many good deeds. many fathomless, complicated feelings There are amusing descriptions of the are at work in this and other pieces. The composer – Cannadine asking if Elgar could 1920s and ’30s were said to mark the end A loyal Briton be regarded as: “. . . a musical Colonel of Elgar’s inspiration, but he did produce Blimp, dreaming of a celestial Eastbourne” Yet Elgar himself was, in many ways, an dark and lyrical music for a production – or a great European artist on the brink of outsider – a man whose Roman Catholicism of King Arthur at The Old Vic, and large- eternity? It is also noted that if Elgar had and social origins in the lower-middle-class scale sketches were made for a BBC- died at the age of forty, his name would, (his father ran a music shop in Worcester) commissioned Third Symphony – which he today, live on only in specialist books might well have put him against the grain wrote on his deathbed. Astonishingly, the about English music – his few, mainly of Britishness and the establishment. It is symphony received its premiere in the age choral works given the occasional outing at a testament to our country’s cohesion and of Tony Blair, 1998 – a message in music provincial or culturally-esoteric festivals. unity in those far-off Anglo-Saxon days of from 1934, and probably the only BBC Elgar was thirty-nine when his Norse saga, Empire and monarchy, that the composer commission to have filled a major London King Olaf, was written (for a festival in saw himself, above all, as a loyal Briton – concert hall. North Staffordshire – the year was 1896): keen to serve the country, rather than (as the Bloomsbury set and others did) detract from his masterpiece, the Enigma Variations International (championed by the great Wagnerian, Hans it. Elgar, the Catholic, would emerge as a The landscape of a pastoral England and Richter) would come three years later. supporter of Sir Edward Carson – signing Carson’s pledge to defend British Protestant the drum-taps of marches echo in many Ulster from absorption into an Ireland of of the works of this remarkable romantic British imperial destiny Home Rule; and expressing throughout his composer. Yet we would do well to Fortunately, Elgar lived a long and full life, life a dedication to the cause of monarchy remember how international Elgar was in drawing inspiration from many sources: – the Coronation Ode (1902) and Second his day: the great European, Russian and the lanes and hills of Worcestershire, Symphony (1911) embodying the British American conductors lined up to perform Herefordshire – and even on one occasion, love of ceremony and remembrance. During his music, and Lady Elgar recalled how the coast of West Wales – and (in 1918), the First World War (too old by then to they were feted at their appearance at the the woods of Sussex. He was also attracted serve on the Western Front), he enlisted as a prestigious Lower Rhine Festival. Yet the by a sense of British imperial destiny and Special Constable, and helped to keep spirits composer will always be close to our psyche history; and from numerous legends, poems, high in his musical capacity by conducting and soul – his music heralding the banner of stories from Shakespeare, and sagas from many of his own patriotic “potboilers”, St George. the pen of Longfellow – and it is from the including The Fringes of the Fleet (with Stuart Millson is a freelance writer, and latter that King Olaf derives. words by Kipling). the Classical Music Critic of The Quarterly A “blue-eyed Norseman” and a Viking Elgar remarked that in the old days of the Review.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 19 ENGLISH STARS OF STAGE AND SCREEN Stan Laurel – an English Comic Genius Stephen Garnett

N THE ENGLAND IN WHICH I grew and 1901 respectively), who at the time of Like many children, Stan and his up boys and girls seemed to know Stan’s birth were living in Bishop Auckland, playmates loved dressing up. With Stan, Icertain facts, from quite an early age, County Durham, where A. J. was manager however, this went a lot further and he as a matter of course. These included, for of the Old Theatre Royal. The house in persuaded anyone he could to join his very example: England’s longest river was the Ulverston was the home of George and own children’s theatre. This enthusiasm for Severn; Edward Jenner discovered a vaccine Sarah Metcalfe, Madge’s parents, and it performing – and comedy in particular – for smallpox; Matthew Webb was the was here that Stan spent the first few years was something that gripped Stan from an first person to swim the English Channel; of his life. A man of great energy and many early age, stimulated by the acts he had seen Sir Francis Drake’s ship was the Golden talents, A. J. also managed the Hippodrome during visits to his father’s theatre. Hind; and, probably because it had such an Theatre in Ulverston (known as The Gaff), When he was six Stan left Ulverston to intriguing name, the Bank of England was and was himself an actor and sketch writer. join his family in Bishop Auckland, but located in London’s Threadneedle Street. His empire gradually expanded until he was frequently returned for holidays. When the We also learned about notable people, manager of a number of other theatres in the Jeffersons moved to North Shields, Stan places and events close to where we lived. north east as well as running various touring persuaded his father to convert the attic of I was born and bred in Lancashire, so cotton companies which he and Madge (herself their house into a small theatre and founded mills, the witches of Pendle, Blackpool an actress) often accompanied around the the Stanley Jefferson Amateur Dramatic Tower, Accrington Stanley, and familiar sons country. The wish to provide Stan with Society, with nine-year-old Stan writing and daughters such as Richard Arkwright, Sir some security – he had been a sickly baby – scripts, acting and making the scenery. Robert Peel, Emmeline Pankhurst and Gracie probably explains why he was left with his As A. J became more successful Stan was Fields were all familiar. grandparents rather than experiencing the sent to a number of boarding schools, in There was one Lancashire lad, however, nomadic lifestyle of A. J. and Madge. Bishop Auckland, Gainford and Glasgow. of whom I was particularly proud, especially Although not academically inclined he was as he came from the same busy market town Close family quickly making a name for himself as a as my father and grandfather: Ulverston, Gordon, Beatrice and Teddy spent a lot of laughter maker and was sometimes invited on the edge of the Lake District. I knew time in Argyle Street, so they were a close to entertain the teachers in the staff room. from an early age that his real name was family, with many back and forth visits Although worried about the insecurity of an Arthur Stanley Jefferson and that he was between the various homes. Stan had a entertainer’s life A. J. always supported Stan, born at 3 Argyle Street, a small two- happy childhood, fishing in the canal, riding and after the sixteen-year-old’s successful bedroom terraced house. I also knew, from his bicycle, buying his favourite treacle debut as a comic at the Pickard Theatre, watching his films on television on Saturday toffee from the sweet shop and climbing Glasgow, in 1906, he obtained a place for mornings, that he and his partner were the Hoad, the hill that dominates the town with him with a juvenile pantomime company. funniest men I had ever seen. its lighthouse-like monument, a memorial Stan Laurel, as he would become known to another famous Ulverston son, Sir John Comic sketches to the world, was born on 16 June 1890, Barrow. There were also excursions on the It was the bottom rung of the show business the second child of Arthur (A. J.) Jefferson train, including visits to his Uncle John ladder, but travelling around the country and his wife Madge (Gordon was an older and Auntie Nant in the lovely Lake District Stan learned all about the business. He did brother, Beatrice and Teddy arrived in 1894 village of Sawrey. everything, from handing out publicity bills in the street to shifting scenery and performing in pantomime and parodies of well-known plays. This education was deepened when A. J. asked him to join his company, then touring the prestigious Moss Empire circuit of variety houses. Stan performed in a number of comic sketches and was quickly immersed in the colourful but precarious world of English music hall. Not only could he study and draw inspiration from greats such as George Robey, Dan Leno, Little Tich and Marie Lloyd, but there were countless others, now forgotten, whose routines and techniques he absorbed. In 1910 Stan joined Fred Karno’s troupe of actors, which also included the soon- to-be-famous Charlie Chaplin; Stan acted as Chaplin’s understudy. Unable to earn enough to live on, Stan returned to London, although subsequently rejoined Karno until, in November 1913, when Chaplin left to go on to bigger things, the tour collapsed. Stan remained in America, touring in vaudeville with a number of partners, including an Australian dancer called Mae Stan and Ollie re-open the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, in 1947 Dahlberg. Although they never married,

20 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND Academy Award For a number of actors the advent of sound signalled the end of their careers, but Stan and Ollie thrived and made more than forty shorts for Roach. These included gems such as Beau Hunks (1931), Helpmates (1932), Towed in a Hole (1933) and The Music Box (1932) which won an Academy Award. There were also several feature films:Way Out West (1937), Swiss Miss (1938), Sons of the Desert (1938) etc. Stan was the creative one, writing, directing and editing, and although there were scripts to begin with, these were invariably changed during filming as new ideas, situations and jokes presented themselves. Nevertheless, no one who saw Laurel and Hardy at work ever underestimated Ollie’s vital contribution. The ability to speak on film gave the boys a whole new seam of comedy to mine, so there were the catchphrases (‘Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!’, ‘Why don’t you do something to help me?’ she and Stan lived together in what was ‘Laurel and Hardy’ etc.), Stan’s plaintive whimper when things frequently a very stormy relationship. Meanwhile, at the Roach Studios, a go wrong, ‘I couldn’t help it’, and some Superstitious about having a name with relationship of a different kind was gradually wonderful dialogue and wordplay. thirteen letters, Stan decided that his surname starting to evolve. In 1926 Oliver Hardy Stan never forgot his roots and the pair needed to be changed, choosing Laurel after joined the studio as a member of the so-called visited the UK on four occasions, with Mae came across an illustration of a Roman Comedy All Star players, and the two men thousands of cheering, screaming fans general wearing a wreath of laurel. began appearing together in several short turning out to greet them. Their bittersweet Although mainly performing in theatres, films. But this wasn’t ‘Laurel and Hardy’ as final tour in 1953 was captured brilliantly in film was becoming increasingly popular so we know them: sometimes they didn’t even Stan & Ollie (2018), an affectionate tribute Stan also appeared in a few silent shorts. appear in a scene together and when they did with Steve Coogan and John C Reilly in One of those early films was The Lucky they were frequently antagonists. However, the title roles. In later years, Laurel and Dog (1919) which featured a twenty-seven- the chemistry between them and favourable Hardy made films for 20th Century Fox and year-old actor from Georgia, a certain audience reaction gradually became apparent MGM, but deprived of any creative input Oliver ‘Babe’ Hardy. They weren’t partners and they were increasingly paired together. It they struggled to recapture the golden days yet, in fact Ollie plays a robber who tries to was Should Married Men Go Home? in 1928 at Roach. Nevertheless, in this country their shoot Stan. that was billed as the first ‘Laurel and Hardy’ popularity never waned. As well as laughing Mae had always been volatile and film and during the next two years they made at the comic situations and jokes, audiences difficult, insisting to producers that she a series of silent shorts including Two Tars warmed to the close relationship between should appear in Stan’s films, so it came (1928), Big Business (1929) and That’s My the two men. as something of a relief when she was Wife (1929). Oliver Hardy passed away, following a persuaded to return to Australia. At the Filmgoers couldn’t get enough of them stroke, on 7 August 1957. Stan refused all same time, Stan’s career began to take off and their antics, and the ‘fat one’ and the offers of further work, but the door of his and provide him with some much-needed ‘thin one’ were soon as familiar as Charlie Santa Monica home was always open to security. In May 1925 he joined the Hal Chaplin’s tramp. Stan described them as visitors, his name was in the phone book Roach Studios in Culver City, California, ‘two minds without a single thought’: Ollie, and up until his death he continued to write as a writer and director. Known as ‘The Lot pernickety, self-important, with plans and material for Laurel and Hardy. of Fun’ It was a great place to work, with ambitions that rarely match his abilities, a Stan: ‘I wouldn’t mind going ski-ing.’ everyone from the tea boy to the directors to man constantly frustrated by the ineptitude Nurse: ‘I didn’t know you were a skier.’ Roach himself on first-name terms. of his partner; Stan, simple, childlike, and Stan: ‘I’m not, but I’d rather be doing that In August 1926 Stan married Lois Nelson yet not averse to retaliating in kind when than this!’ so it seemed that his personal life was also, Ollie pokes or slaps him or, more frequently, No, not a piece of dialogue for one of at last, becoming more settled (the couple when an outsider threatens them both. In those unperformed sketches, but Stan’s final had a daughter, Lois Jr., born in 1927). their bowler hats and suits, a shabby uniform words, on 23 February 1965. A man who However, belying Stan’s easygoing screen that cannot hide their precarious situation, had spent his life making people laugh was image, his personal life was never calm they are innocents and underdogs in a cynical funny to the end. or conventional. Stan and Lois divorced world. Every venture they undertake begins in December 1934; Stan married Virginia Stephen Garnett is the former Editor of This with enthusiasm and optimism, but things England and Evergreen magazines, and writes Ruth Rogers in 1935 but filed for divorce in inevitably go wrong, with disaster emerging from Cheltenham. 1937; on New Year’s Day 1938 he married and escalating from the most harmless Illeana Shuvalova but they were divorced in situations. Yet through it all they remain Further Reading 1940; he remarried Virginia Ruth Rogers in together. Whatever befalls them, they pick Laurel Before Hardy by Jenny Owen-Pawson and 1941, but they were divorced for the second themselves up, dust themselves down and Bill Mouland (Westmorland Gazette 1984); Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel by Fred Lawrence Guiles time in 1946; on 6 May 1946, he married carry on to the next misadventure with an (Stein and Day 1980); Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Ida Kitaeva Raphael to whom he remained unquenchable belief that, this time, they will Behind the Movies by Randy Skretvedt (Apollo married until his death. make a success of things. Press 1988).

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 21 ENGLISH MUSIC Our leading musicians strike the right chord Stuart Millson

HE MUSIC OF JOHN IRELAND, Neolithic world of the first movement, Le Mio Sakamoto particularly brilliant in some performed at the English Music Catioroc (the name of an ancient site on the of the early-on, fiendishly involved passages TFestival – and a new CD of works island), fully encapsulates the composer’s in Peter Seabourne’s rhapsody for horn and by modern English composers. mood and artistic philosophy; one of using piano, The Black Pegasus. The composer With our concert halls closed, the music as a means of awakening brooding describes “slow chimes” which “herald an performance of classical music has become forces and emotions from the landscape, extended melancholic cantilena” – before largely the preserve of solo artists, or bathed as it seems in the light of almost the miraculous galloping horse of the title socially-distanced orchestral players other-worldly sunshine, and with sea and dashes out of our sight. broadcasting via the internet or television. the echo of folklore ever present. Ireland’s This year, the English Music Festival – music often celebrates and describes a usually held in rural Oxfordshire – was particular place but transforms it into a Seven miniatures for horn salvaged by a number of its loyal and dimension of dreamscape and supernatural Seabourne’s seven miniatures for horn, regular musicians recording talks and hallucination. on nursery themes, entitled Julie Dances, concerts from their homes. The listening With no real people before him, provide a superior form of musical public were able to log on to the EMF Honeybourne still provided the true diversion, as does his Encounters – five website and follow a “virtual” Festival virtuoso’s touch for his locked-down duets for horns, establishing enormous performance. One of the highlights of audience, the music surging at the end contrasts between an opening Idyll to the the event was a recital of British piano through the soloist’s fingers and whole Finale Serioso. And hearing the horn in such music, played by Duncan Honeybourne, body – to the extent that he almost rose “close contact” as this, the horn’s character from his home in Dorset. Introducing from his piano stool at the end. If this – so often a Mahlerian wash of sound in each item, Mr. Honeybourne provided an performance had taken place at the English an orchestra, but here in the spotlight – extremely well-thought-out sequence of Music Festival’s main venue of Dorchester demonstrates the extreme virtuosity of the works, distinguished especially by Vaughan Abbey, a standing ovation would surely instrument. Williams’s meditation on the Tudor music of have followed. Written in the spring of 1985, Robin Orlando Gibbons (the Hymn Tune Prelude Holloway’s Partita No. 1 (written for the on Song 13) and John Ireland’s expansive, Craftsmen of modern English music great Barry Tuckwell) consciously pays three-movement, 1940 evocation of the Thankfully, recordings continue to appear homage to Bach, especially given the Channel Islands, Sarnia – the ancient in this time of uncertainty, with the Sheva antique-world titles of each movement: Roman name for Guernsey. contemporary label issuing a magnificent Prelude, Courante, Sarabande, Loure and collection of music for horn by two of our Gigue. Holloway is a master of subtle, finest modern musical craftsmen, Robin harmonic, lyrical flow – and it is as if a great Dramatic atmosphere Holloway (b. 1943) and Peter Seabourne master from the classical world has come Duncan Honeybourne’s living room may (b. 1960). The performer is the Czech into our own time, not as a pastiche or as a not have provided the ideal acoustic for horn-player, Ondrej Vrabec. Mr. Vrabec time-warp curiosity, but as the re-assertion the music, but there was no doubting the has built up a reputation, not just as an of those tonal values which make music dramatic atmosphere, pulse of natural instrumentalist but as a conductor, both truly what it is. feeling – especially in the elemental in his native country and in Japan and movement, Song of the Springtides – and Iceland. Also included are fellow horn- the tantalising, almost impressionistic players of the younger generation, Michaela Civic fanfare for a flower festival colours and supernatural feeling summoned Vincencova, Hana Sapakova and Daniela The equally splendid second partita, again up by his impassioned interpretation. The Roubickova – with the Japanese pianist, from 1985, is dedicated to a friend of the composer, John Kerrigan, whose birthplace, Ireland, is celebrated in the penultimate, Irlandaise movement, but not before a further exposition by Holloway of Bach- inspired structures in the Gavotte and Musette and soulful Sarabande. It is not often that we associate modern composers with civic occasions, but Peter Seabourne brings us the bright sunshine of a celebratory day in Lincolnshire, in his fanfare for four horns, Mille Fiori, written for the 2011 Spalding Flower Festival for performance by musicians from the Royal Air Force. Perhaps, like Elgar’s Civic Fanfare (Hereford), Seabourne is reviving a forgotten genre of music. As he once remarked, “My music is of its time, but I see myself as part of the continuum.” (This article first appeared in The Quarterly Review. For further details about the English Music Festival, visit the following Duncan Honeybourne website: www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk).

22 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND King Coal deposed By Derek Turner

N AUGUST, ENGLAND’S last coal mine extracted its last load. The open- Icast mine at Dipton, near Durham, had only been functioning since 2018, but it sat in one of the chief extraction areas of northern England, where coal has been sought since mediaeval times, but especially since the Industrial Revolution. Multiple generations of badly-paid, brave and tough miners in Durham, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Wales and elsewhere delved in claustrophobic, dangerous and filthy conditions to transmute black stone into gold, and power the extension not just of England and the Empire, but today’s technology. In rare spare time, they constructed complex identities and resilient communities, wry ways of looking at the world, cleaning off choking dust to sing in choirs or blow into brass and silver instruments, and walk on the bleak wild moors hundreds of feet above their Stygian work stations. Their villages and towns were unvarnished, unlovely, but they did all they could to uplift themselves – forming educational associations, opening libraries, racing pigeons whose flights symbolised a freedom they could never attain, listening to non-conformist preachers, and organising in The old coal mining winch wheel in the centre of Radstock, Somerset. The wheel is from Kilmersdon unions to mitigate some of the worst horrors Colliery, Haydon of their troglodyte lives. Thatcher was right that the mines were becoming unviable, landscapers move in, we should remember The Irish Times, but erred by not offering real alternatives to with honour those whose admirable-horrible The Spectator and rightly indignant communities. The miners’ histories are bound into the grittiest ground The Lady. strike was the last, understandable stand of a of England. Derek has launched a new web-magazine, stratum whose muscles had made modernity. Derek Turner is a contributor to a number The Brazen Head, a compendium of ideas As Dipton’s diggers power down, and the of publications, including: and reviews. www.brazen-head.org

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 23 LOCKDOWN LIBRARY Books of English Interest Reviewed by – ‘Anglofiler’ Great men usually thousands of Indians were likewise Cultural Virus (Bruges Group, 2020) have flaws. Our transported to Muslim masters. The Royal revised by Robert Oulds FRSA and Dr admirable admiral Navy was a major force in reducing Niall McCrae MSc. It offers a brief Horatio Nelson nineteenth-century slavery, but this introduction, and antidote, to dangers like had a few, but ancient phenomenon has persisted in the revolutionary exploitation of recent attacks various forms, with numerous new multiculturalism. on his memory, victims even in Commonwealth countries This latter issue is examined particularly over (CHRI Report, July 2020). by Professor Eric Kaufmann in a slavery, refuted compassionate, thoroughly informative expertly by study: Whiteshift (Penguin, 2019). He Martyn Downer A refreshingly discusses how English people, who wish (Mail Online, 12 positive account of legitimately to preserve and promote their October 2020) our national heritage native culture and inherited institutions, and the Nelson is Ferdinand can negotiate with members of “BAME Society’s webmaster Alan Cross, require Mount’s English communities” reluctant to identify as notice of good books on his naval skills Voices: Lives, English who retain foreign allegiances. and colourful life. Roger Knight’s concise Landscapes, Although the author’s statistics may Pursuit of Victory (Penguin, 2006) is still Laments (Simon & prove optimistic in view of Hong Kong available, also on Kindle. His detailed Schuster, 2017). He visa-plans and African demographics, he two-volume biographer Dr John Sugden reviews, albeit provides constructive policy guidelines. has commented that our national hero sometimes Our Royal Society could usefully consult championed black individuals who had idiosyncratically, the his recommendations for future youth given good service, one of whom is contributions of some fifty personalities, recruitment and education. commemorated on his Trafalgar Column as varied as Bagehot, Betjeman, Dickens, (see Colin Brown, Independent, 19 Hardy, Keynes, Kipling, Shakespeare, Literate teenagers October 2005 online). Kingsley Amis, Alan Bennett, Ronald may join Blythe, Basil Hume, Wilfred Owen. In broadminded contrast, do not bother with The Shortest adults in enjoying Recent attacks on History of England (Old Street, 2020) by It’s a Strange Englishmen and James Hawes, which exaggerates the so- Place, England their statues were called “north/south divide” and hardly (Creativity, 2020) exemplified by the matches the histories by Robert Tombs by Jack Strange, ritual effigy- and Simon Jenkins, both since overtaken with its collection drowning of a however by Megxit, Covid and BLM. of oddities, prominent trader/ eccentricities, philanthropist sports, associated with the The motivations landmarks, Royal Africa behind current ghosts, highwaymen, etc. Company, born in campaigns to vilify Bristol nearly 400 or rewrite our As for very young readers, years ago. The vandals responsible were history have Captain Sir Tom Moore presumably unaware that this city had nevertheless been tells his story in One previously been a seaport for cruel trading vigorously opposed Hundred Steps (Puffin, in white slaves, described extensively by by several writers, 2020) nicely illustrated by Simon Webb in The Forgotten Slave one example that Adam Larkum, a Trade (Pen & Sword, 2020), although touched a nerve welcome patriotic link many more millions of Africans and being Moralitis: A across the generations.

DO YOU HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE? If you do, please do search for the Royal Society of St George in the Facebook search bar and ‘like’ our page. Please post updates on our page about your branch activities and events. Please also add photos and relevant links if appropriate. If you like a link on our page, then please do ‘share’ it to your own profile page and this helps to promote our Society to potential new members. We are also on twitter, so please do follow us on @RSStGeorge and help widen the reach of our updates by retweeting them to your followers. Finally, we now have a group set up on LinkedIn where members and non-members can join and connect to potentially do business with each other, or share helpful business hints and tips. If you have a profile on Linkedin, please do request to join our group. You will find it by searching for ‘Royal Society of St George Official Group’ in the search bar within Linkedin.

24 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND BOOK REVIEWS

New titles, reviewed by Bob Peedle MBE, Fellow of The Royal Society of St George

This time, not one but three autobiographies Lynn and Field Marshal Montgomery to in the Town Hall and in 1950 he married are explored. I must congratulate the writers Stirling Moss and many others. There are Iris. To be self employed, he bought a Post because it takes some bravery to expose plenty of pictures both of his own life and Office and once became the victim of a your past, your loves and quite intimate historic ones of his family and places he frightening robbery. details of one’s history. Two of these books knew. Outlined in this book are details of his are from current members of RSSG, both Most of will know of an almost day amateur dramatics and his charity work in their nineties, and the third is of our new by day effort to raise £1000 for NHS for which he ran fund raising marathons. Honorary Member, Captain Sir Tom Moore. Charities Together as a thank you for his A lovely feature of his book are the treatment for his hip. Well he surpassed many photographs, some of which show Tomorrow will that to reach over £30 million for this most Greenwich as it was before the Second be a good day worthwhile of charities. The reader shares World War. In 2020 he received the French, by Captain Sir Tom his amazement and delight as the number Legion d’Honneur as a veteran of D-Day. Moore of pounds rose dramatically. I have no Penguin Books doubt that his magnificent effort has been I have come a - £20 - ISBN978-0- a great encouragement to others to try to long way 241-48610-8 do likewise, our RSSG Chairman amongst by David Peterson. You get the way many others. He has been a light of hope in Published by Page this excellent work an otherwise dreadful year brought about Publishing INC, is going with the by the Covid-19 pandemic and all the social New York - ISBN first quote by Sir and business restrictions that resulted. 978-1-64544-286-8 Tom himself: I can only recommend this book to be For this work we “Tomorrow will be high on everyone’s list to buy as soon as travel across the a good day. Tomorrow you will maybe find possible to relive his achievements his love, Atlantic to Texas everything will be much better than today, loyalty and devotion. It will cheer you and where David is even if today was all right. My today was inspire you. Perhaps I am a little biased a member of the all right and my tomorrow will certainly be having seen a small amount of military life local branch of better. That’s the way I’ve always looked at myself but more so because he gracefully RSSG. The title says it all because both life” accepted honorary membership of our Royal geographically and in career terms he did His book explores the ups and downs of Society. travel a very long way. He was born in his life which started in Yorkshire in 1920 Thank you Sir Tom, tomorrow will be a 1927 in Milwaukee As a boy he was at East and at his one hundredth birthday held two good day because of you! Central Illinois in the village of Rossville. Guinness World Records. One was for the We learn of his family and their work in the largest sum ever raised by an individual What a life!! country. His interest in the Merchant Marine charity walk and the other for being the By Charles Roper came about as his father was a Ship’s Chief oldest person ever to have a number-one Medhurst. Engineer. At sixteen therefore he started at hit single. What a way to celebrate his one Published by Sue a Merchant Marine Training Station in New hundred years of useful, loyal and fruitful Gay, London - York. His first ship saw him start work in life but to be knighted by HM The Queen. ISBN 095395770-4 the engine room. His wartime Merchant Many of you will have seen his Charles comes from Marine experience included convoys across appearances on TV and heard him on the Greenwich in South the Atlantic and on occasions under attack radio. He has also featured is all the national London where he by German forces. After the war he left papers so already this year he has gone from was born on 15 the sea and joined the American Army and being a family hero to being a national hero. May 1925. The saw active service in Korea for which he I bought his autobiography and once book starts with received the Commendation Medal. He then I started reading could not put it down. his childhood and toured Europe in the rank of Staff Sergeant He takes you through his childhood, his schooling and then the Second World War. until he left the Army in 1955. fascinating war-time experiences mainly in At sixteen in 1941 he started work in the In Civilian life he had many jobs but Burma in the war against the Japanese then first of many jobs. Two years later he was eventually, with some background of Army his peacetime careers and marriages. The called up and joined the Royal Navy. His life at a Missile Testing base at White Sands, first marriage was a sad fifteen years not first ship was a First World War Battleship, he eventually got into that field of work. He being consummated but his second one was HMS Malaya. He saw action in support of spent twenty-five years in the rocket and a good one resulting in his pride and joy of the Landings on D-Day. His next ship, HMS space business until he retired. his two daughters and his grandchildren. Beachy Head took him to many parts of the This book makes very interesting reading Each chapter is prefaced by a quote from world. He was demobbed in 1946. as there is no doubt David Peterson had a well known person, such as Dame Vera He returned to civvy life, firstly working come a long way! ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE ADVERTISING RATES BY APPLICATION TO HEAD OFFICE The Administration Centre, P.O. BOX 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN, England [email protected] Tel: 020 3225 5011

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 25 ERIC KENNINGTON Eric Kennington as a Wartime Artist By Geoff Simpson

RIC HENRI KENNINGTON (1888- “is arguably the first great commemorative 1960) was a soldier in the Great War painting of the First World War.” Eand served in the Observer Corps and In the Second World War Kennington the Home Guard in the Second World War. worked on and off for the War Artists’ In both conflicts he was a war artist. Advisory Committee established by Sir Although he came to regard himself Kenneth (later Lord) Clark, then Director of above all as a sculptor, Eric Kennington the National Gallery. is perhaps best remembered now for his A number of artists depicted the men portraits of military and other figures from who fought in the Battle of Britain, among the Second World War. He was, “a simple them Kennington and Cuthbert Julian Orde man fascinated by the staying power of (1888-1968). After a spell in the Army Portland stone, nasturtiums, and his 1925 Fiat Service Corps Cuthbert Orde had flown as car,” according to the Oxford Dictionary of an observer and pilot in the Royal Flying John Mungo-Park sits for portrait painter, Eric National Biography (ODNB). The interest Corps. He was therefore accepted by the Kennington in endurance was apparent in his wartime aircrew of a later generation as one of their portraits. They often showed people worn own and acquired the nicknames, “Turps”, In 1942 Eric Kennington produced a down by combat or the Blitz but resolved to “the Captain” and “Uncle Orde”. book, Drawing the RAF. The foreword carry on to the end of the road. was written, or at least signed by, Air Chief Geoffrey “Sammy” Allard Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air The Kensingtons Some people sat for both men, including the Staff. Kennington, whose father,Thomas Benjamin Hurricane ace Geoffrey “Sammy” Allard, Portal (himself a subject of the artist) Kennington, had also been a well known who had been a Sergeant-Pilot in the Battle declared, “I suppose that Eric Kennington portraitist, attended St Paul’s School. In of France in May 1940 and in September gives his portraits something of his own the First World War he served in the 1/13th that year, as an acting Flight Lieutenant, clear and noble vision of life, and if he (County of London) Battalion, The London would lead No 85 Squadron into action in draws us as he would have us be, then let us Regiment, known as “The Kensingtons”. He the Battle of Britain after Squadron Leader try to be as he sees us.” It was Portal who was wounded and invalided out in 1915. Peter Townsend had been wounded. had ensured that Kennington was added to A particularly celebrated painting of In his book, The Face of Courage, the list of official war artists. Kennington’s from this period is The published in 2011, Jonathan Black The book contained an account of Kensingtons at Laventie, including a self compared the two styles. Kennington by the former colonial portrait and showing the soldiers in a ruined He wrote: “Orde draws the happy go governor, Sir Ronald Storrs. He declared village with snow on the ground. They are lucky ‘fighter boys’. Kennington offers the that, “Many of the portraits recall the exhausted after a sleepless four days and prematurely aged yet highly effective killer tenseness, almost to snapping point of nights in the trenches in bitter cold and of enemy pilots and aircrew.” waiting – waiting sometimes in vain – almost continuous snow. Now they are Sammy Allard, Yorkshire born, had for the return of machines overdue . . . about to start a period of rest. joined the RAF as an aircraft apprentice Kennington has recaptured the youthful The painting aroused controversy. At in 1929, before his potential as a pilot was simple expression of feature as of fact: first the Ministry of Information regarded spotted. He received the Distinguished of an utter honesty which takes refuge in it as too stark and it was some time before Flying Cross and the Distinguished Flying understatement, or apologizes for missing it would accept Kennington as a war artist. Medal and Bar. He was killed in a flying an ammunition vessel ‘first time’ as though For the ODNB The Kensingtons at Levantie, accident in March 1941. for missing a catch at cricket.”

Cuthbert Orde Sammy Allard J. W. C. Simpson

26 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND At the time of his VC action Edwards, the son of Welsh emigrants to Australia, was commanding No 105 Squadron. Aircraft from another Blenheim squadron, 107, also took part. Edwards was a tough man, but he later described the flak over Breman as, “terrific and frightening”. He survived the war, was knighted and served as Governor of Western Australia in the 1970s. He died in 1982.

Wing Commander “Sam” Elworthy One of Kennington’s bomber subjects was not only much decorated, but rose to the head of his profession. Wing Commander “Sam” Elworthy had been born at the port of Timaru in the south island of New Zealand in 1911 and educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge. In the 1930s he had served in the Reserve of Air Force Officers and then in the Auxiliary Air Force with No 600 (City of London) Squadron. He received a permanent commission in the RAF in 1936. In 1937 Sam Elworthy was appointed personal assistant to Sir Edgar Ludlow- Hewitt, Air Officer Commanding- in-Chief, Bomber Command. At the beginning of 1939 he was posted to No 108 Squadron. In late August 1940 he was appointed ‘A’ Flight commander in No 82 Squadron, at a time when this squadron had suffered terrible losses. From 14 December 1940 Elworthy was the CO. He went on to work on the staff at the Bomber Command HQ, High Wycombe, where he much impressed, Sir Arthur Harris. Much later he hosted the RAF Coronation Review in 1953 and served successively as Chief of the Air Staff and Chief of the Defence Staff. He died in 1993.

Royal Academy Despite his military associations, resistance to authority and the establishment was a feature of Eric Kennington’s life. He was a This passage went on to stress the granted a short service commission in the strong critic of the Royal Academy for many understatement of men describing how they RAF as a Pilot Officer. He earned his DFC years, but eventually accepted associate had hit the target at the second attempt. in June 1941 for leading his formation in a membership in 1951. He became a Royal There was no accident in the choice sweep during which a well defended convoy Academician in 1959, the year before he of Storrs to write the biographical part was attacked. Wing Commander Edwards died. of Drawing the RAF. For one thing both machine-gunned and bombed a 4,000 ton He was buried, as was his wife Edith who he and Eric Kennington were close to ship from mast height. On 4 July he led died in 1973, in the churchyard of St Peter T. E. Lawrence. Kennington was art editor of the famous daylight attack on Breman, and St Paul at Checkendon in Oxfordshire, a Lawrence’s book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of the most heavily defended towns in few miles from Henley-on-Thames. He had while Storrs had been chief pallbearer at the Germany. He himself planned the operation been rector’s warden at Checkendon and funeral of “Lawrence of Arabia”. and led the Squadron. During the approach lived in the nearby village of Ipsden. The book demonstrated that Kennington to the German coast several enemy ships There is much of Kennington to be found reached beyond Fighter Command. He was had been sighted and it was realized that at the church, which dates to the twelfth also interested in the “Bomber Boys”. the presence of the Blenheims would be century. He carved gravestones, memorials He depicted, for example, Wing reported to the enemy ground defences. and fonts. In the 1950s, when the nave roof Commander Hughie Idwal Edwards, Over Breman Wing Commander Edwards was renewed, he led a group of local people who, the book recorded, “is known in flew his own aircraft under a high tension in the carving of bosses. An etched window his squadron and throughout all daylight cable and broke through telegraph wires. in the church by Laurence Whistler pays bomber squadrons, as ‘Eddie’ Edwards. He Every aircraft in the Squadron was hit and tribute to Kennington. was born in Australia on 1 August 1914, and four were destroyed. For his courage and The window enjoins visitors to served as a cadet in the Royal Australian Air leadership in the attack Wing Commander “Remember Eric Henri Kennington who Force in 1935. In the following year he was Edwards was awarded the Victoria Cross.” loved this church”.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 27 NEWS

Former paratrooper walks The battle for the greenbelt for the second meeting but appealed to eleven miles to lay cross on the Planning Inspectorate, as the Council ‘York’s unluckiest street’ had not decided the application on time. They have been granted a Public Inquiry starting in December. And not content with that, the developer has submitted a second application, the same as the first one; presumably a tactic to put pressure on the Council to change its mind. The two parish councils affected by this application have instructed solicitors Clouds gather over the East Malling countryside and barristers to appear at the Inquiry and have launched a Crowd Justice Campaign As a short follow-up to the story in the last to fight the appeal, pressing the case at the issue about the building threats to Kent’s forthcoming Local Plan Inquiry for Green Garden of England (in particular the area Belt extension. of West and East Malling) I thought readers Any donations for this vital cause to save might like an update to our local planning part of England’s overlooked countryside saga. would be greatly appreciated. By typing into It is pleasing to report that at a second your browser: “Save the Extension to the planning meeting, members of Tonbridge Malling Green Belt including Forty Acres” and Malling Borough Council refused you should be able to reach our site... and planning permission to build 250 homes on join our campaign! Jeffrey Long after his eleven mile march Forty Acres in the countryside separating Cllr. David Thornewell, Chairman of East A wartime tragedy in York has been the two villages, despite the planners urging Malling and Larkfield Parish Council and remembered seventy years on. approval. However, in a sort of planning member of the North Downs Branch of The Royal Society of St George. Paratrooper Jeffrey Long, eighty-eight, game of chess the developers did not wait walked eleven miles from RAF Linton- on-Ouse to York to lay a wooden cross in Nunthorpe Grove yesterday (Friday). Responding to Covid-19 particularly badly hit by the pandemic. The The walk was one of series undertaken by The Society responded to an appeal first batch of 20,000 face coverings has been Jeffrey, which will total 100 miles, to raise launched by our affiliate, the Order of St sent to the Red Cross in Belgrade. We are money for the RAF Benevolent Fund and George, to provide Covid-19 face coverings also hoping to to arrange the delivery of a the RNLI. to Serbia, which is of one the countries further 10,000 masks to the Philippines. Nunthorpe Grove has been described as ‘York’s unluckiest street’. It was certainly one of the most ill-fated locations in the Second World War. In the air raid of 29 April 1942 a bomb dropped on house numbers twenty-three and twenty-five, destroying these, along with numbers nineteen and twenty-one. Several people were badly injured, and the body of a young ATS girl, Dorothy Thompson, was later found at the bottom of a bomb crater in no.twenty-one. The houses were eventually rebuilt in 1946. Further bombs landed on other parts of the estate, between the houses. In another devastating incident, on 5 March 1945, Halifax bombers from the Canadian 426 Squadron at Linton-on-Ouse took off for a raid on the German city of Chemnitz. These aircraft suffered from severe icing and three crashed soon after take-off. One broke up under the weight of ice which had accumulated on it, and its fuselage crashed on nos.twenty-six and twenty-eight Nunthorpe Grove, killing two elderly ladies, while one of the engines hit the nearby In Memoriam school. Derek Parsley The aeroplane was carrying eight bombs. Eleven people died – six of the crew and Derek passed away quietly in his sleep on 13 October 2020. He (and his late wife, five civilians – and another eighteen were Jenny) had been members of Rushmoor Branch for many years until illness prevented injured in the crash. Four houses were set him from continuing as an active member. on fire.

28 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND Bradford branch closes Over the past few years we have adopted September: Fellowship fish and chips lunch We were very sad to learn of the closure of a pattern of events, as follows: October: AGM following by a speaker Bradford branch on 30 November 2019, due February: coffee morning to raise funds for December: Christmas lunch. the President’s charity of the year to declining membership and the age-profile James Fergusson, latterly Honorary of their members. Bradford was one of our April: St George’s Day celebrations. Secretary, concludes his last report by oldest branches and had been very active – This is at the heart of our activities. On saying: ‘we close with our heads held high. even in their last year of existence holding 23 April we lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Our records include a note of a meeting a function every month, as the following Bradford and then visited the Lord Mayor. held on Tuesday ,1 September 1953 when a testifies: On the Sunday nearest to St George’s Day dozen gentlemen met together to ‘take steps we attend Morning Service at Bradford to form a Bradford Branch of the Royal Report on the activities of the Bradford Cathedral and present the flag of St George Society of St George’. For sixty-six years branch for the years 2016-17 and 2018-19 to the Dean and Chapter. The President is we have celebrated “all things English” with The Bradford branch of the Royal Society of invited to read the Epistle. pride’. St George continued to have an interesting June: soup and sandwich lunch and a and varied programme of activities for the speaker We are so very proud to have been able two years to October 2019 but, sadly, has August: celebrate ‘Yorkshire Day’ with to count you amongst us, Bradford, and to seen a decline in active membership. afternoon tea at Crag House Farm, the have had your support and fellowship. We At the Annual General Meeting in home of ‘Caring for Life’, a charity which will miss you enormously. October 2017, Jillian Fergusson was elected supports vulnerable people on a long term Joanna Cadman Prsident and re-elected a year later. basis Chairman

Remembrance the thousands of West Indian, Irish and Canadian soldiers who Bob Peedle MBE, Fellow of The Royal Society of St George and were billeted in and around Seaford in the First World War and Chairman of the Seahaven Branch. later. Many of the West Indian troops fell ill during the 1918 flu Throughout the land, cities, towns and villages all have their epidemic and died. Part of the town’s cemetery is designated as a War Cemetery. war memorial. These are specially important on two days each Usually this commemoration is well attended with representatives year, Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. Remembrance of the countries involved as well as Ex-Service Associations with Sunday the nations Remembrance is led by our Royal Family at the their standards and members. This year the Covid 19 restrictions Cenotaph in Whitehall, an event that is broadcast on TV and Radio have meant that the full event, usually organised by branch to the world. This is replicated at most of the memorials throughout committee member and former Town Mayor Linda Wallraven, was the land. cancelled. Instead a small gathering of local people and members of For Seahaven not only do we have three memorials that we the Seahaven Branch held an impromptu ceremony which included support on the Sunday - Seaford, Newhaven and Peacehaven/ the exhortations, last post and Reveille with a wreath laid on behalf Telscombe, but there is also a memorial in the Seaford Cemetery of the branch by President Laurie Holland. which becomes of special importance the Tuesday following Bob Peedle, MBE, Fellow of The Royal Society of St George and Remembrance Sunday each year. On this day we commemorate Chairman of the Seahaven Branch.

Branch Chairman, Major Bob Peedle MBE lays a branch wreath at the Peacehaven/Telscombe memorial Branch President, Laurie Holland, lays a branch wreath at Seaford

Some of those who attended the commemoration on Tuesday 10th November in Seaford. Branch President Laurie Holland is centre Branch Vice President, Steve Saunders lays a The imposing Seaford Cemetery Memorial for the alongside the Standard of St George carried by branch wreath at Newhaven West Indian, Irish and Canadian troops Frank Holland

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 29 STUDY THE PAST Civil Defence returns to the UK Colin Harmsworth, Chief Officer, Joint Civil Aid Corps. Chairman, The Civil Defence Association

“The call of duty, the spirit of comradeship, the sense of high purpose is as necessary in the future as when the citizen armies of the Civil Defence were gathered together.” H.M. King George VI, 10 June 1945, from the speech His Majesty gave at the Stand Down Parade of the Civil Defence Services “Study the past if you would in Hyde Park. define the future” ~ Confucius

HIS COULD EASILY BE the starting statement for the Joint Civil Aid TCorps. How? Simply because to define our future, I looked to the past. What I found was seen as the fourth defence line of the Country, after the Navy, Army, and Civil Defence Corps Air Force, and was made up from civilian volunteers – normal people willing to Sir John’s strength and fortitude saw the Sir John Hodsoll, the ‘Father of Civil Defence support the Country in times of need. formation of the Civil Defence Corps (CDC) Since the CDC, and its sister organisation, This defence line became known as ‘Civil in 1948. The CDC was ostensibly formed the Auxiliary Fire Service, were stood down, Defence’ and saw its beginnings back in to be in position to support communities the early years saw 1935 with the formation of the Air Raid in the event of a the void left being Precautions as the Country prepared for nuclear attack from filled by independent possible conflict in Europe. When it came, Russia, but in being Sir John’s strength and organisations, wartime saw 1.9 million civilian volunteers trained to meet those fortitude saw the formation of many made up in the ‘Civil Defence General Services’, possibilities, it became the Civil Defence Corps from former CDC men, women, and even boys and girls from a national asset members, and as young as twelve. Following the war, Civil capable of supporting in particular the Defence was stood down, but one man led the emergency National Voluntary Civil Aid Service. the fight to bring back the Fourth Defence, services in all events from natural disasters Unfortunately, as time has gone by, units Sir John Hodsoll, the man seen as the and floods, through to man-made incidents. ceased to exist with just two remaining. ‘Father of Civil Defence’. Due to Government short-sightedness, budgetary needs due to problems with the The Joint Civil Aid Corps (the Corps) economy saw the CDC finally stood down is being developed to bring back Civil in 1968. At its height, the CDC had 330,000 Defence across the Country. Using the CDC volunteers based nationally. as its primary model, the Corps has been

Wardens, responsible search, rescue, first-aid, firewatch, welfare, and messenger service

30 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND the appointments of roles, with growth and development encouraged at all times. Funding, of course, is an issue. As a charity, we rely on grants and donations, but in these current times, these have become non-existent for us, and so development has slowed considerably as we seek ways forward to meet our financial needs. We have been chosen as one of the organisations to support the Commonwealth Games in 2022, and we are determined to be ready to give our full support to the games in Birmingham. For veterans from both the Military Services and Civilian Emergency Services, as one myself, I feel this is something comrades from both will be interested in. Like all disciplined organisations, I am hoping that with a backbone built from service veterans of both areas, the integral existence of camaraderie will form. I am sure that many, if not all, veterans will agree the loss of camaraderie is one of the things service personnel miss once they have left their relevant service. This will give developed as a structured and disciplined Our approach is built on common sense the opportunity to build the same type of organisation capable of supporting the rather than dictated by convention. Our camaraderie to bolster civilian life. career emergency services in whatever communities are built of people from all I am extremely fortunate to be working capacity it needs at the time. walks of life and backgrounds and we want with a team of dedicated and determined the Corps to reflect The Corps is a people, who like me, are in this for the registered charity this fully. long haul. We still have many bridges to whose passion Our first guiding principle is cross, but we remain confident that this centres on how it our concept of ‘One People’, A place for can bring together everyone will succeed to benefit our communities communities in regardless of the labels One of our other and support our professional emergency support of themselves. Society chooses to place on guiding beliefs services. The concept of the is that there is a If you would like to know more about Civil Defence Corps people and groups place for everyone what we are trying to achieve and/or would was based on their wishing to be a part like to help us develop, please feel free to belief: ‘For the Communities, By the of the Corps, with roles available to suit contact me though our website: Communities’. To me this means making the capabilities of our volunteers. We take https://jcac.org.uk or our communities self-reliant when it comes a common-sense and honest approach to email: [email protected]. to emergency preparedness and resilience. The best way to make that happen is to offer communities the opportunity to participate, and that is where the Joint Civil Aid Corps comes in.

Training At the centre of the Corps’ activities is training, and it is the time spent training together that builds understanding, respect, trust and bonds of friendship that will influence how communities see themselves. Our first guiding principle is our concept of ‘One People’, regardless of the labels Society chooses to place on people and groups. Everyone’s beliefs, cultural background, and lifestyle is personal to each individual and should be respected as such. Barriers are formed from labelling people due to differences. Removing the labels helps to remove barriers. As a non-sectarian, non-denomination organisation, our doors are open to all from aged eleven throughout adulthood as we have no set retirement age.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 31 BATTLE OF BRITAIN MEMORIAL News from Group Captain Patrick Tootal OBE ESPITE THE RAVAGES of Covid, our work in the Battle of DBritain Memorial Trust and RAF charities continues. Sadly, our 15 September wreath-laying had to be cancelled, due to observance of the rule of six, but the national commemoration and thanksgiving for the eightieth anniversary of the battle did go ahead at Westminster Abbey.

Daily Express Appeal Luckily, our successful Crowdfunder and Daily Express Appeal has offset our losses this year. At the Memorial site itself, The Wing reopened on 17th July and visitor numbers have been encouraging. The front entrance is now complete with the new propeller tips installed just in time for Battle of Britain Day.

YouTube We have also held some virtual events, including this year’s Memorial Day. Readers and supporters may like to visit our very The RAF ensign flying in the summer breeze at the Battle of Britain Memorial site, Capel-le-Ferne, near own YouTube channel: Folkestone, Kent. https://www.youtube.com/c/ battleofbritainmemorial Our aim – as ever – is to keep alive the We have always been grateful for the Please do tell your friends and family memory and spirit of The Few. They gave support of The Royal Society of St George about our work, and if anyone would like to their lives and their youth, so that our – and even in these difficult times, we get in touch with us, or join, please visit our country might be free – a message which know that we can count on your backing website: we must impart to the younger generations. and support. https://www.battleofbritainmemorial.org/

HELP YOUR SOCIETY – BY MAKING A DONATION IN YOUR WILL The Society and our Charitable Trust are helped greatly if there are Legacies and Bequests. By making a posthumous gift of money or property you may also reduced your Estates inheritance tax liability. The options for a donation, in your Will, are: • A Legacy of a specific sum; • A Bequest of specific property; • A Bequest of the residue of your Estate or a Share of it with other charities or individuals. What to do to help us in your Will: lf you wish to include a donation in your WILL please consult your Solicitor. Members of the Society can take advantage of a 50% discount offered by Omni Lifetime Planning See advertisement below for details A simple form of Legacy might include the following words: “l hereby bequeath, free of tax, the sum of £ ...... to The Royal Society of St George (P.O. BOX 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN, England). OR to The Royal Society of St George Charitable Trust (Registered Charity No.: 263706) and the receipt of the Hon Treasurer or other proper Officer for the time being of The Royal Society of St George shall be a complete discharge of such Legacy”

This wording can easily be adapted to cover the Bequest of a Property or of All, or Part of, the residue of your Estate. ln any case of doubt please ask your Solicitor or get in touch with the Society’s Administration. This is especially appreciated if you intend to lay down conditions as to how the Bequest should be used.

32 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND A GIBRALTAR MEMORY

Glynn Jones

Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar

UITE RECENTLY I HAD a short White Ensigns hang majestically along with holiday in Gibraltar, somewhere the Union Jack. At the end of the Chapel is QI had never visited before and found a painting high up of St George on his horse it steeped in history. One of the looking down on us all. places I visited was the Church of England It is sad that we do not have a Royal Gibraltar Cathedral or Cathedral of the Society of St George in Gibraltar (but we Holy Trinity. It is indeed a very impressive are now working on it!) so that its members building with an architectural style inspired may have a Service of Remembrance in this by Moorish architecture, appropriate given lovely Chapel and Church on 23 April every the period of Moorish control in Gibraltar’s year. history. The cathedral suffered no significant damage during the Second World War. After the war had come to an end, Bishop Harold Buxton made an appeal for the purpose of “Saying Thank You to Malta and Gibraltar”, with the intention of raising funds to be spent on improvements for St Paul’s Pro- Cathedral, Malta and the cathedral in Gibraltar. In Gibraltar the money raised was used for the construction of new vestries and the creation of a second chapel in the south aisle of the cathedral, to be dedicated to Saint George and in memory of all who lost their lives in the Mediterranean area during the war. The second chapel in the south aisle of the As you can see the flags of the Red and cathedral St Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, Valletta

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 33 Celebrate St George’s Day – 23 April 2021 at the spectacular St George’s Day Ball and Gala Evening Featuring one of the country’s elite military bands (To be confirmed) plus The Divine Co Flag and Ribbon Dancers and much, much more

Tickets are selling rapidly. To reserve your space, please contactThank you the office.

Friday, 23 April 2021 (Joint hosts: RSSG and The Rotary Club of Swindon, Thamesdown) De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel, South Cerney, Cirencester Doors open 18:00 Call to dinner 18:45 Gala 21:00 Carriages 01:00 Dress code: Black tie or uniform. Red and white theme preferred but not essential Grand Auction ❤ 250 prize tombola ❤ “Open the box” event Price £75 per person – individuals, groups or tables of 10 or 12 Welcome drink and three-course dinner Gala entertainment and Mini Proms Dancing to a live band and Disco Hotel rooms available Coaches welcome

Your Chance To Win THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ST GEORGE 2021 HOLIDAY DRAW

French holiday gite in the Vendée, situated in rural farmland yet only thirty minutes from Nantes, St. Jean and the coastal oyster and mussel beds. Fifty minutes away from the capital La Roche-sur-Yon. You will stay in a traditional, original farm gite – comprising of a lounge/diner, kitchen, bathroom, 2 bedrooms (1 x double and 1 x twin) Patio, BBQ, etc, The gite was fully rewired in Autumn 2020. Situated on 2.5 acres of the original farmland, the Vendée has the greatest amount of cycle paths in France. Bikes are available. Full details in the Spring Journal

34 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 7K H 5R\D O 6RFLHW\ RI 6W *HRUJH (VWDEOLVKHGLQ_,QFRUSRUDWHGE\5R\DO&KDUWHU_3DWURQ+HU0DMHVW\7KH4XHHQ

The Royal Society of St. George is partnering with Harney & Sons Tea Company to produce, market, and sell the Imperial Windsor Blend Tea, in support of the Royal Society’s educational programmes for young people.

The Royal Society of St George (RSSG), a charitable organisation, was founded in England in 1894 with the goal of fostering English values and the English way of life. From its inception, it has enjoyed the support of prominent public figures in England and throughout the British Empire. Its first Royal Patron was Queen Victoria; since then the society has enjoyed the patronage of every reigning monarch, including the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Society’s Charitable Trust actively provides financial support to help young people fulfill their scholastic and career potential.

Harney & Sons is a celebrated gourmet tea company located in Millerton, New York. Founded in 1983 by John Harney, it has grown from a hands-on cottage industry into one of the leading gourmet tea companies in the USA. It is still a hands-on family business now headed by John’s sons, Mike and Paul Harney.

Harney & Sons has produced The Imperial Windsor Blend exclusively for The RSSG. The Imperial Windsor Blend is a medium bodied tea with briskness and a wonderful aroma, containing black teas with rose petals.

The partnership will produce, market, and sell the Imperial Windsor Blend tea globally, with particular emphasis on promoting the tea to its direct, branch, and affiliate members throughout the world. In return for the exclusive right to market and sell this RSSG-supporting blend, RSSG will receive a quarterly royalty of 10% of gross sales, allowing The RSSG to build its support programmes and assist more young people, needed now more than ever.

ABOUT THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ST. GEORGE The objectives of The Society as laid down in its Royal Charter are to: 1. Foster the love of England and to strengthen England and the Commonwealth by spreading the knowledge of English history, traditions and ideals; 2. Keep fresh the memory of those in all walks of life who have served England or the Commonwealth in the past, to inspire leadership in the future; 3. Combat all activities likely to undermine the strength of England or the Commonwealth; and 4. Further English interest everywhere to ensure that St. George's Day is properly celebrated and to provide focal points all the world over where English men and women may gather together. UK ORDERS – please order via our Shop Window on our website www.rssg.org.uk or via the order form on page 51 of this Journal. All UK enquiries to the RSSG Administration Centre – telephone 020 3225 5011 or email: [email protected]

USA, CANADA, INTERNATIONAL AND BULK ORDERS - please contact Harney & Son’s distribution agent, Mark Cooper via telephone - +164 65 29 93 11 - or via email – [email protected]

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 35 HISTORY OF ST GEORGE The Saint and the Crusaders Professor Dr. Lothar Gellert At least twice in the history of the Crusades St George played a major role

Part 1: The capture of Jerusalem come to the aid of the pilgrims. He waved The year 1099 was in the so-called First his silver shield, giving the sign to attack Crusade. After the call of Pope Urban II in again. All the soldiers who had already 1095, many crusaders moved to Jerusalem withdrawn followed this sign. to liberate this city. The Crusaders’ army They all regained the strength and courage arrived in this city on 7 June 1099, and and continued the attack with so much immediately began the siege. However, enthusiasm, bravery and audacity. They were Jerusalem was well prepared for the event, so confident of victory and regained their so that the besiegers themselves soon strength as if they hadn’t fought before. Even suffered from hunger and thirst. It was those who were previously badly injured decided to continue the siege in other parts and sick in their camp, arose. Healed and of the city. Siege machines were pushed full of energy, they began the attack even directly against the before the others. walls of the city of The soldiers fought Jerusalem to capture St George appeared to the with joy to succeed in it. The Turkish soldiers, coming to them on a doing everything that soldiers, however, seemed unattainable Pope Urban II strongly resisted the great white horse the day before. So attempted capture by the Turks soon saw large Turkish army. It was so great that the shelling the besiegers their forces wane and knights thought they had never seen such a with arrows and throwing stones at them. could only defend themselves weakly. Thus large army. They were constantly shelled by Nevertheless, the Christian army the soldiers of the Crusader army were able the Turkish soldiers. continued to advance. Some of the soldiers to take Jerusalem and Gottfried of Bouillon, After various cities were handed over to protected themselves with doors and also known as Gottfried of Lorraine, was the the Turks, the barons advised the king to shutters against the stones falling on them. first to enter the city. After the St Stephen’s bring himself to safety and to flee. However, However, the Turkish soldiers had more Gate could also be opened, the entire army the King refused because he did not want bows and crossbows available in the city invaded the city of Jerusalem, which could to let his people down. Thus the whole and were therefore able to kill many of the thus be conquered at the ninth hour on army began an orderly retreat. This was attackers. Again and again they were able Friday, the 15th day of July 1099. made more difficult, however, by the Turks to damage the siege towers and set them Gottfried of Lorraine was then elected lighting the grass and the dry shrubs, so that on fire. This assault lasted all day until and appointed the first king of Jerusalem, the wind blew the smoke over to the king’s nightfall. Then the Crusader army had to and thus the Kingdom of Jerusalem was soldiers. As a result, the king’s soldiers withdraw to recover. Many of the soldiers created. almost suffocated. thought about how to fight more effectively, (Taken from the book: Sebastien Marmerod, and many were full of energy and could Eine Chronik der Kreuzzüge, page 308-320.) hardly wait to continue fighting the next A prayer for deliverance day. Thus, the siege and capture of the city Part 2: The conflict with the King of Then the soldiers prayed fervently that God continued the following day. Damascus would save them from this danger. When St George appeared once again. After the the archbishop set the True Cross against Courage falters death of King Fulk of Jerusalem, his son the flames, a miracle happened and the wind In the afternoon it was still not clear who Baldwin III could not immediately take over turned and drove the flames and the smoke had won the battle and the soldiers of the the regency, because he was only thirteen toward the Turks. As a result, the soldiers Crusader army began to get tired. Having years old at that time, so his mother took regained their courage. The Turks were barely made any progress, they slowly over the role. During this period in 1444, very frightened by this. The soldiers still abandoned the courage and they wanted Zengi, the ruler of the city of Mosul, began wanted to retreat, but on a less dangerous to give up the siege tower, which was to besiege the city of Edessa. The capture by path, which was not known to anyone. Then almost destroyed by the stone slingshots. him was the reason for the Second Crusade, came the miracle: a knight appearing on a As other siege equipment was also badly whose participants arrived in the Middle tall white horse. He was wearing a armour damaged, they considered postponing the East in 1147. with and carried a red banner. No one knew attack until the next day. When they were When a Turkish prince named Altuntash where he came from, but after three days, so despondent, St George appeared to the became embroiled in a feud with the King the Christian warriors were out of danger. soldiers, coming to them on a great white of Damascus, he appealed to the King of And the knight disappeared as suddenly as horse from the Mount of Olives. He was Jerusalem and offered to put his lands in he had come. Everyone was aware that the adorned with a silver shield with a large red the king’s hands, if he assisted him against miraculous knight was Saint George, who cross. No soldier had ever seen this knight Damascus. Baldwin III agreed with this often helped those who served him from before. However, he had already appeared to request and raised an army. The King of the heart through miracles, especially the a priest once upon arrival before Jerusalem Damascus tried to persuade Baldwin III Christians who helped the Holy Land. and had told him to carry some relics into to return. His knights, however, advised (Taken from the book: Sebastien the city. He identified himself to the priest as against this and soon the knights of King Marmerod, Eine Chronik der Kreuzzüge, Saint George, who would lead the army and Baldwin III found themselves facing a page 400-407.)

36 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

protect our people against subversion; but Rural England - we must defend it “here we are again”. Editor, Stuart Millson, responds to David Writers such as Douglas Murray, Ed West Thornewell’s article from the last edition, and Sean Gabb have written relevant books which called for urgent countryside that can be recommended to members as protection essential good reading during the lockdown. Our minds are free, after all. Yours sincerely, D. L. W. Ashton Norfolk I believe that all of us are against irrational prejudice in our country. Of course, everyone should have the same chances to compete for jobs, go to university, be treated equally under the law, etc., but certain elements are using such issues as a battering ram against our traditional identity as a society. It is ridiculous that simply flying the flag or celebrating our history is construed as “racist”. Ed. Songs at the Proms Sir: Congratulations on speaking out against the insidious campaign to suppress any pride in England’s maritime and colonial Cecil Rhodes past. As the Chairman of the Society pointed The legacy of Cecil Rhodes out in her letter, not everything that our Rumours are abounding that the In our last edition, we commented at length country did was great, but neither was it all Government is trying to create a new upon the issue of respecting the statues and bad – and we should learn from mistakes, National Park in North Yorkshire and figures of England’s imperial past. Following not rip up our history. may be providing support to our Wildlife a large postbag, we are pleased to select the Thank goodness, too, that the BBC saw Trusts. This is indeed encouraging. Yet as following letter from a reader who has been common-sense – at the last moment – and David Thornewell warned us in the last a member of The Royal Society of St George ensured that the time-honoured Last Night edition, there is very little protection for since 2003. of the Proms finale (which is broadcast our “ordinary countryside”; with many Sir, all over the world) included all the great areas and boroughs being forced to take Cecil Rhodes was an Englishman who, in national favourites, such as Land of Hope on a disproportionate amount of so-called the nineteenth century, brought education and Glory and Rule, Britannia! housing needs. In most cases, the new to the Rhodesias. This enabled the citizens A Belize-born British composer, Errollyn houses will not solve any local housing to speak English. The Rhodes Scholarship Wallen, also arranged Parry’s Jerusalem – problem, as so many of our young people is awarded to Commonwealth citizens and and it was interesting to hear her comment (thanks to shrinking job opportunities) has brought huge educational benefits and that so many people who came to Britain simply cannot afford to own, even an advantages to many young people. from the West Indies in the 1950s would “affordable” home. It is hugely short-sighted of the protesters have grown up with such hymns. There needs to be an urgent summit to try to unseat the very man who enabled The Last Night also featured Vaughan on housing, with national and local African students to gain the finest education. Williams’s The Lark Ascending, and it was government coming together with Michael Lockyer, very moving to see the music accompanied community organisations, and conservation Belfast. by beautiful sequences of aerial photography, groups, to map out exactly what housing of the mountains, lakes, fields and coasts we need and where development should Protecting us from subversion of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern take place. Greenbelt designations are Dear Editor, Ireland. helpful, but in the Tudeley area of Kent In the last edition of the magazine, the At the end of the night, the Royal Albert (within the official greenbelt) local people Chairman of our Society was right to speak Hall was shown bathed in red, white and are mobilising against the threat of several up for our statues and monuments, but blue light, and I am sure that many millions thousand new houses. Without a doubt, I was slightly disappointed in the use of of people across the country – of all social the greenbelt must be protected, a cause two particular words in our approach: the and cultural backgrounds – drew inspiration which is being passionately defended by ubiquitous “racism and sexism”. from this occasion. the London Greenbelt Council and CPRE, Instead of supporting English culture Peter Gibbs, who are issuing a “manifesto” for this vital Kent and institutions, outright, she mentioned conservation measure. “educating” children against “racism” Members of The Royal Society of St. and “sexism”. All very well, except that George must play their part. All of us must these terms have been surreptitiously and write to our elected representatives and incrementally extended in practice to fuel to the planning bodies, to argue for the attacks on “nativism” (i.e. our legitimate defence of the countryside; the preservation patriotism) and “heteronormativity” (i.e. our of farmland and pathways; and for sensible traditional families). development, that genuinely helps to solve The Society founders long ago saw local needs. the threat to our island achievement from Put simply: without our green fields, our republicans, communists and anarchists, woodland, marshland, moorland and hills, which is why its aims specifically sought to The Royal Albert Hall at its opening in 1871 we will not have an England. . . .

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 37 FOLK HERITAGE OF ENGLAND Nottingham’s proud tribute to Robin Hood David Bennett

A potent figure in history and myth, Robin Hood has inspired numerous plays, story-books and films. Like St George, he fought evil and stood for truth and justice

38 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND OST TOWNS IN ENGLAND to create a sculpture of Robin have an iconic symbol which both Hood and his merry band. Mresidents and visitors recognise In July 1952 a half-ton seven- as representative of that place. It could be foot bronze statue of Robin Hood a building or a person: Blackpool and its was unveiled by the Duchess of tower, Stratford-upon-Avon and William Portland on the Castle Green. Shakespeare are good examples. On the wall of the castle are four Nottingham from time immemorial has pictorial plaques in bronze: been associated with the mythical character 1 Robin Hood, Maid Marian of Robin Hood. and Friar Tuck with hounds The name Robin Hood features in fighting Guy of Gisbourne’s everyday life with public houses named men after characters in the Robin Hood story. 2 King Richard the Lionheart At one time Nottingham had a volunteer joining the hands of Maid regiment, the Robin Hood Rifles, which Marian and Robin Hood fought with distinction in South Africa and 3 Robin Hood and Little John both world wars. Now the regiment’s name fighting on the bridge is carried on by an army cadet unit with 4 Robin Hood shooting his last band stationed just outside Nottingham in arrow on his death bed the village of Ruddington. There are small bronze studies In 1949 in commemorating the visit surrounding the main statue of of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke Little John, Friar Tuck, Alan of Edinburgh to celebrate the city’s A’Dale and Will Scarlett. quincentenary, a local industrialist Phillip One could describe the whole E. F. Clay commissioned James Arthur display as an open-air art gallery Woodford RA OBE, who attended the in bronze dedicated to Robin Nottingham School of Art in his early days, Hood and his merry men.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 39 ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH SERVICE St George, Hanover Square Joanna Cadman, Chairman of The Royal Society of St George

In the midst of all the turmoil and anxiety time, and the new restrictions in London enabled more people to join us and for of this year, we were given a wonderful at that time meant that we couldn’t share which I am very grateful to the technical moment of calm in which we could attend lunch afterwards, which is always such an whizzkids at St George. the All Saints Service at St George, Hanover enjoyable time of companionship, but it was It was a beautiful service and the choir, Square, on 1 November. just so lovely to be there at all, and we were who sang in the gallery, were literally made very welcome, as always by Father heavenly. They moved some of us almost Zoom Roddy Leece, the Society’s chaplain. to tears. I wouldn’t have missed this time of There weren’t that many of us, few would We paraded the Society’s Standard, peace and healing in a world of insanity for have wanted to travel into London at this and the service went out on Zoom, which anything.

40 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 41 The Royal Society of St. George Incorporated by Royal Charter Patron: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN Chairman: Joanna M. Cadman. WREATH LAYING CEREMONY AND CADETS PARADE THE CENOTAPH, WHITEHALL, LONDON SATURDAY, 24 APRIL 2021 EVERYONE WELCOME We are pleased to confi rm the details of our Annual Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Cenotaph. This year the event will be taking place on Saturday, 24 April 2021. We, the members of the Royal Society of St. George and guests, will meet at 10.15 am at King Charles Street, (nearest underground station Westminster) prior to the Service of Remembrance and Wreath Laying scheduled for 11 am. Around 500 Members of three Cadet Forces, accompanied by music from their band, will be on Parade and the Salute will take place immediately afterwards. At approximately 11.30 am our offi cial party will move on to Westminster Abbey for a wreath-laying service at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior which will take place at around 12 noon. A luncheon will take place at the Cellarium in Westminster Abbey at 1 pm. £45 per person Further details from the Administration Centre Please apply to the offi ce for tickets, menu choices Please tell your family and friends and join us in London on this spectacular occasion which is held annually to remember all those who have served our country and the Commonwealth as part of our Society’s St. George’s Day Celebrations.

Please contact Liz to order your wreath by 31 March RSSG, PO Box 397 Loughton IG10 9GN Telephone: 020 3225 5011 Email: [email protected] Website: www.rssg.org.uk Facebook page – www.facebook.com/RoyalSocietyofStGeorge - Twitter account - @RSStGeorge Join us on LinkedIn – The Royal Society of St. George Offi cial Group.

42 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND The Royal Society of St George 50/50 Club Join our 50/50 Club, help the Society raise much needed funds and win yourself some money!

• The 50/50 Club takes the form of a monthly Lottery. • To enter you can pledge to sponsor individual numbers between 1 to 400, for £5.00 each, per calendar month. (MINIMUM DURATION ONE YEAR). • There is no limit to how many numbers one person can sponsor but numbers will be allocated on a strictly First-Come-First-Served basis. • On the First Monday of each calendar month three numbers will be drawn from those numbers sponsored within the preceding month. • 50% of monies collected from those sponsored numbers will be given as prize money, with the other 50% going to help The Society to achieve its Four stated Objectives and contribute to the Charitable Trust. The prize money will be split into three prizes as follows 60% 30% 10%. THE MORE PEOPLE WHO JOIN, THE BIGGER THE PRIZES – SEND IN YOUR FORM TODAY! SPONSORSHIP FORM Please complete and forward it with your cheque or completed bankers order form to: The Royal Society of St. George, P.O. BOX 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN, England Please Print Name: ...... Branch: ......

Address: ......

...... Post code: ......

Tel no: ...... Email: ...... q I note that my details will be added to the RSSG database and will be used by the Society in connection with my membership and for no other purpose. They will not be shared with a third party. To enter you can pledge to sponsor individual numbers between 1 to 400 for £5 each per calendar month. MINIMUM DURATION 12 MONTHS. I/we wish to sponsor the following number/numbers in the Royal Society of St. George 50/50 club, commencing date:

...... at £5 per month for 12 months. NUMBER/NUMBERS I I I I I I I I NOTE: If the number requested is unavailable the nearest available will be allocated. I/we enclose a cheque made payable to The Royal Society of St George 50/50 Club for I number/s for 12 months = £……… or please fill in Bankers Order form for I number/s for the next 12 months.

BANKERS ORDER FORM – please print your bank details.

To the Manager: ...... Bank PLC / Building Society ......

Full address of branch: ......

...... PostCode: ...... Please pay to The National Westminster Bank now and on each month until cancelled the sum of:

In words ………………………………………… pounds sterling. Commencing Month: ……………… 2019.

To credit: The Royal Society of St George 50/50 Club. Account No. 66797586 / Sort Code 52-41-42. Please print your account details.

Your Account Name:......

Account No: ...... Sort Code: ......

Signature: …………………………………………….Date: ………………………………………... If you require additional forms, please feel free to copy as required. Full copy of 50/50 rules available upon request. If any further information is required, please contact The Administration Centre, PO Box 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN. Tel:020 3225 5011 Thank you for your support ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 43 ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE Omni Lifetime Planning Ltd specialise in Wills, ADVERTISING RATES BY Trusts, Asset Protection, Probate, Powers of APPLICATION TO HEAD Attorney and Funeral Plans. OFFICE We offer a 50% discount to members bringing the The Administration Centre, cost of a single will down to £75 and a pair of mirror P.O. BOX 397, wills down to £125. Loughton, IG10 9GN, England www.omni-lifetimeplanning.co.uk Tel: 01727 220053 [email protected] mail: [email protected] Tel: 020 3225 5011

Copy date for the April 2021 edition of Royal Society of St George St George for England New Address 28 February 2021 * * RSSG To submit copy contact Stuart Millson P.O. BOX 397 Tel: 07956 035821 LOUGHTON email: [email protected] IG10 9GN

DO YOU SHOP ONLINE? If your answer is yes, then you are in an ideal position to help raise funds for our Charitable Trust – and at no cost to you. Read on...

If you buy goods online or participate in grocery home shopping, then please check out the “easyfundraising” scheme below, as our Charitable Trust can get a donation every time a purchase is made through it by you. Simply go to: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/royalsocietyofstgeorgecharitabletrust If you then wish to participate, sign up with the Royal Society of St George Charitable Trust as your chosen charity, and continue shopping online as normal using this site as your portal. There are over 2000 participating stores which include; John Lewis, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Amazon etc. It’s absolutely free to you and our Charitable Trust can gain donations from the participating retailers of up to 2.5% or more of the value of your shopping when you use it. What’s more, they will send you a confirmatory email once the participating retailer has processed your transaction, letting you know how much has been donated to the Royal Society’s Charitable Trust on your behalf.

44 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND Application for UK Membership to the The Royal Society of St. George

Please complete this form and the privacy statement and send to:

The General Secretary, RSSG, P.O. Box 397, Loughton, Essex IG10 9GN, United Kingdom

Telephone: 020 3225 5011 email: [email protected]

Note: This form is not to be used for Junior applicants under the age of 16.

I wish to apply for Membership of the Royal Society of St. George.

Title: ………………………………………... Full Name: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………… Postal Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………..………. Post ode: ………………………………… Telehoe No: ………………………………………….. mail: …………………………………………………………………………… ate of Birth: ……………………………………… uatio otioal: ………………………………………..……………………………………………...…

(Joint Member) I wish to apply for Membership of the Royal Society of St. George.

Title: ……………………………………….. Full Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… Telehoe No: ………………………………………… mail: ………………………………………………………………………….…

ate of Birth: ……………………………………… uatio otioal: …………………………………………………………………………………………

Please give your reasons for wishing to join the Society on a separate page and submit with this application form.

Where /how did you find out about The Royal Society of St. George?

Member Branch Internet Journal Other ………………………………………………………………….

Membership Fee*: Joining Fee Annual Fee Full Single £ 15.00 £ 20.00 Full Joint £ 15.00 £ 30.00 Youth (under 18 on January 1st) £ 0.00 £ 5.00 Life Membership £ 500.00 N/A Joint Life Membership £ 750.00 N/A Other (please see details in the journal or website) £ £

I/we would like to make an additional Donation of £…………….

Please arrange with your bank to pay by Standing Order Alternatively you can pay by Bank Transfer to: Account No. 00003854 Sort Code: 40-52-40

You may also pay by cheque, making it payable to: The Royal Society of St. George

*Note: Published fees are for UK only. Please contact the Society Office for other rates and appropriate payment methods.

Please read and sign page 2

Revision: 1st January 2019

This page is part of the Membership Application Form and concerns your personal privacy Pae elaratio The Royal Society of St. George (RSSG) will hold certain personal information (known as ‘Personal Data’) about you. Personal data is iformatio from hih ou as a idiidual a e idetified. ithout this iformatio the is ot ale to ilude ou i its memershi.

The iformatio e ill retai aout ou detit ad otat details: That iformatio roided ou o ae of this form Ad if ai diret deit or stadi order: etails of a aout. additio e retai details of our memershi te ears of memershi ad susritio amets.

o ill this formatio e used Authorised ersos ithi the admiistratio of the roess this iformatio i order to ommuiate romote ad maae its atiities ollet aual susritios ad for eeral admiistratio. f ou hoose to elo to a rah of the authorised memers of the rah admiistratio ill also roess our iformatio i order to arr o similar atios at rah leel.

The RSSG will ensure:  our iformatio ill e roessed fairl ad leall.  f for some seifi urose further ersoal data is reuired it ill ot e olleted ithout otifiatio ad terms of use.  esitie ersoal data as defied i the eeral ata Protetio eulatio ill ot e olleted or roessed the ithout a full elaatio of its urose ad our eliit ritte oset. ho do e share our data ith ith the folloi eetios the ill ot share our data ith a third art:  There is seifi ritte oset ou.  From time to time it is necessary for the member’s database to be accessed for maintenance and upgrades by the service provider. This aess is roteted a leall idi odislosure areemet.  f ou are i a artile i the t. eore for lad oural or esite ut ol ame rah ad oset hoto

teratioal urretl the ol atiit that rosses iteratioal oudaries is data ie oerseas memers ad the distriutio of the oural. f a eet arises reuiri our data e set the eod the the it ill ol our ermissio or leal sruti.

o lo ill e ee our data our data ill remai o the dataase for as lo as ou are a memer. he ou leae our data ill e truated to ame rah ears of memershi or date of leai ad the ateor of the reaso for ou leai.

hat rihts do ou hae. roof of our idetit:  ou hae the riht to see the ersoal data that is held aout ou ad hae a o roided to ou or someoe else o our ehalf i a eletroi format ad at o ost.  f ou eliee our ersoal data e hold is iaurate ou a as to hae it orreted.  here ou hae ie oset for the to roess our ersoal data ou a ithdra that oset at a time.  ou a reuest our ersoal data e deleted

Consents To iform ou of forthomi eets e eed our ermissio to sed ou details of those eets: e oset to reeii mail or tet romotioaladertisi material of eets

(indicate your consent by ticking this box) f the oiet ishes to ulish a amed hotorah of ou e ill as ou for our ermissio. f ou atted a futio ad do ot ish to aear i a hotorah the lease iform our hotoraher

By signing this form I/we declare that I/we, understand and agree with the principles and terms of The Royal Society of St. George and agree to further its Objects as set out in the Royal Charter (as published in the Journal and at www.rssg.org.uk) and have read, understood and accept the privacy notice on this page:

iature: ate:

oit memer iature: ate:

46 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND Revision: 1st January 2019

MEMBERSHIP AFFILIATIONS – DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE

20% DISCOUNT OFF TRADITIONAL AFTERNOON TEA AND ITALIAN NEW FOR 2020 – A FREE PERSONAL TAX REVIEW DISHES AT AVISTA, the Italian Restaurant at the MILLENNIUM HOTEL Contact Lloyd James, a qualified tax adviser with twenty years LONDON MAYFAIR. experience in tax Telephone 020 7596 3399 for the Italian food or 020 7596 3329 for a free tax review and if I can save you tax I will do so at a for the Traditional Afternoon Tea, which starts from £14.95 10% discount to my usual fee which starts at £90 per tax return per person and is served daily from 2.30 pm to 5.00 pm. Your only for RSSG members. membership card will need to be presented to take advantage Telephone Lloyd on 01793 827620 or of the above. email [email protected]

15% DISCOUNT ON ACCOMMODATION AT MILLENNIUM HOTELS. 15% DISCOUNT OFF THE ENGLISH TOASTMASTERS ASSOCIATION To take advantage of these discounts on accommodation and TRAINING COURSE The English Toastmasters Association are offering leisure break packages please state that you are a member of the Royal Society of St George when telephoning Monica 15% DISCOUNT off their fees to become a Toastmaster. The normal cost of Sanchez at Millennium Hotels direct on 0207 596 3138 training, annual membership and joining fees add up to £2,450 or emailing Monica at [email protected]. from the 1st April 2014, which includes £100 joining fee and £250 annual membership fee. MANY DISCOUNTS ON BOOKS AND TOURS: The courses are being offered at 15% LESS at £2082.50, A • 25% off Breese Books when ordered online. The largest SAVING OF £367.50. Training includes 3 full days after which producer of new Sherlock Holmes novels in the style of Conan further training is available on demand within the annual Doyle. Please visit www.baker-street-studios.com and quote membership fee. Meetings are held throughout the year with “RSSG25” two special meetings including breakfast and luncheon. These two special meetings are held in April close to St George’s Day • 15% off historical location guide books ordered online such and in October around Trafalgar Day at the County Hotel in as Downton Abbey, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders, Harry Chelmsford, Essex close to the Association’s HQ in Danbury. Potter and James Bond. Please visit www.baker-street-studios. Further training is available on demand and included in com and quote “RSSG15” the annual fees covering such subjects as marketing as • £50 off specialist detective tours to various areas related a Toastmaster, Masonic Ladies Festivals and Corporate to filming e.g. Downton Abbey, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Functions. With prices charged by Toastmasters generally Murders etc. Please visit www.detective-tours.com for more ranging from £250.00 to £750.00 per event, this is wonderful information. work for the right person and is greatly rewarding regardless of • £50 discount off Sherlock Holmes Murder Mystery events the type of work that is undertaken. Please see: for small, medium and large party sizes. Please visit www. www.englishtoastmasters.co.uk murder-mystery.com If a Branch or group of members would for full details, email: [email protected], like to organise a trip to film locations or have a period costume telephone (01245) 222392 or 07971 409977. murder mystery please telephone Dr Antony Richards on (01223) 473025 10% DISCOUNT WHEN VISITING THE NATIONAL FRUIT COLLECTION at Brogdale Farm, Brogdale Road, Faversham, Kent ME13 8XZ. MRFLAG.COM Ltd A number of festivals and events are held celebrating British 15% DISCOUNT fruit, encouraging people to discover a wider variety of on all products except sewn flags. Telephone Kath the Sales delicious heritage fruit to eat and grow at home. These include Manager on (01792) 650044 or email Kath at sales@mrflag. a Blossom Weekend, Cherry Festival, Cider Festival and Apple com and state that you are a member of The Royal Society of Festival. They also offer courses on planning a fruit garden, St George. growing and pruning throughout the year. Guided walks are also available. For further details telephone (01795) 536250 or visit www.brogdalecollections.co.uk 10% DISCOUNT FROM OF CABBAGES & KINGS a source of design-led gifts and homeware by British based HOTEL AND CAR HIRE DISCOUNTS: artists, designers and crafts people. Please visit www. • 20% - 30% discount on hotel accommodation below similar ofcabbagesandkings.co.uk and enter code “ST GEORGE” offers available on public websites. when checking out. • 20% discount on car hire through Alamo and National • Your Society also benefits by receiving 2.5% on every 10% DISCOUNT FROM KNIT WITH ATTITUDE booking made with no extra cost to you. a small independent yarn shop that specialises in eco-friendly Please visit: www.membertravelspecials.com/RSSTG.aspx and ethically produced yarn and accessories for hand knitting and help your Society by making this your preferred means of and crochet. To receive a 10% discount please visit: www. saving money when booking hotels or car hire. knitwithattitude.com and enter discount code “St George” in your shopping cart before checking out. Alternatively please JOHNSONS STEAK HOUSE OFFER A 10% DISCOUNT OFF YOUR quote this code when visiting the shop at 127 Stoke Newington MEAL TO MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ST GEORGE AND High Street, London N16 0PH. THE MILITARY FROM TUESDAY TO THURSDAY The newly built Steakhouse and Bar at Church Farm, Church Street, Old Hurst, Huntingdon, PE28 3AF serves home grown OMNI LIFETIME PLANNING LTD produce reared on the farm. Lunch is served Tuesday to 50% DISCOUNT ON WILL WRITING Saturday from 12 pm to 3 pm and dinner from 5.30 pm to 9.30 Bringing the cost of a single will down to £75 and a pair of pm with a Sunday Carvery available from 12 pm to 3 pm. For mirror wills to £125 for Society members reservations please telephone: 01487 824658 option 3, Email: www.omni-lifetimeplanning.co.uk Tel: 01727 220053 [email protected] or contact through Facebook email: [email protected] @johnsonsfarmshop.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 47 BRANCHES LIST

BRANCHES IN ENGLAND Greater Manchester Sheffield Mr. M. J. Riley, Mrs Margaret Jennifer Clark, Secretary The All-Party Parliamentary Group Email: [email protected] Telephone: 0114 264 0524 The House of Commons Email: [email protected] (Membership is only open to Lords, MPs and Halifax Shropshire staff of the Palace of Westminster) Geraldine Carter, Hon Secretary Email: [email protected] Mr. David Knott, Chairman Barrow in Furness Tel: 01743 368 552 Mr. D. Ward, Haslemere Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Sara Jane Gray, Chairman., Southend-on-Sea Email: [email protected] Mrs V Weaver, Mrs S Hankers, E.mail: [email protected] Bath & District Email: [email protected] Rev. Robert Webb Chairman Tel: 01702 748 702 Tel: 01225 484042 Huntingdon Col (Retd) DH Bristow OBE DL, Sussex Blackburn and East Lancashire Tel: 01480 383166 Arun Agarwal, Interim Committee Mr John Williams, Chairman Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Leeds Swale www.rssgblackburn.org.uk Cllr Wyn Kidger, Chairman Mr Paul David, Acting Secretary Bolton Email [email protected] Tel: 01795 471 876. Email: [email protected] Mr. Chris Houghton, Chairman Leicestershire Email: [email protected] Mr. Leon R. Spence, Chairman, The Tower Of London Tel No: 0116 319 9508 (Membership only open to Yeomen and Bradford Email: [email protected] employees of the Tower of London) Mr J A Fergusson, Honorary Secretary. Warwickshire Tel: 01274 583654 Lowestoft Email: [email protected] Mr. A. Clive Benfield, Mr Brian Caton Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] City of Birmingham Waterloo Mr D Reynolds, Chairman Maritime Wessex Mr. Bob Smith, Chairman E-mail: saintgeorgeinbirmingham@hotmail. Chairman Mr. Mark Buckley Email: [email protected] com E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rssgbirmingham.org.uk Wessex North Dorset North Downs Dr Jack Skelton Wallace, President City & County of Bristol Mr. S. Millson, Chairman, Mobile 07923 962 650. Tel: 01747 825 388 Mr D Stinchcombe, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Wiltshire North Surrey Mr. Lloyd James, Chairman City of Liverpool Mr. Roger Felgate, Chairman Mr B K Boumphrey, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Northumbria Branch City of London Mr. A .J. Nicholls, Chairman, Mr. Steven J. Turner, Honorary Secretary Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Nottinghamshire City of Wakefield Mr. Colin Slater MBE JP Hon. MA, President Mr. Reg West, Secretary. Tel: 01924 864 799 Email: [email protected] City of Westminster Plymouth & West Devon Mr. Alan Broomhead, Chairman, Mr. A. Romilly, E.Mail:[email protected] Email: [email protected] Radford OVERSEAS BRANCHES Danbury Mr Phil J Harwood, Abu Dhabi Mr. Richard Palmer FMETA C.Inst.S.M.M. Email:[email protected] President The English Toastmasters Mr. Paul Billany, Secretary Association, Rushmoor Email [email protected] Lt. Col Leslie G.A. Clarke - Chairman Mobile: 07971 409 977 Adelaide Telephone: 01483 810 492 Email: [email protected] Mrs D Bone, Email:[email protected] Website: www.englishtoastmasters.co.uk Mobile: 07710 230 379 Email: [email protected] Bangkok East Anglia Ms Laura Smith, President Seahaven Email: [email protected] Mr. John Stannard, President Mr. Robert A. Peedle MBE TD.,Chairman Tel: 01502 512 734 Tel: 01323 899 985 Brisbane Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mrs V Skinner, Email: [email protected] Fenland St Neots Mr. Brian Kierman, Chairman Mr B Chapman, British Columbia Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mr. Shawn Wade, President Telephone: 01945 463 774 Email: [email protected] Seven Hills Gloucestershire Mrs. Christine Hirst, Chairman California Mrs Margaret Fuller Telephone 0113 253 5647 Princess Karen Cantrell, Chairman Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

48 ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND BRANCHES IN ENGLAND Greater Manchester Sheffield Carolinian Nairobi OVERSEAS AFFILIATED Mr. M. J. Riley, Mrs Margaret Jennifer Clark, Secretary The Honorable Randy L Potts, Hon Chairman Mrs Janet Barlow (Secretary) The All-Party Parliamentary Group Email: [email protected] Telephone: 0114 264 0524 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] ORGANISATIONS The House of Commons Email: [email protected] Nassau St George’s Society Of Toronto Halifax (Membership is only open to Lords, MPs and Costa Blanca Mrs Sally Varani-Jones, PO Box CB-12883, Robert Baines, President Geraldine Carter, Hon Secretary Shropshire staff of the Palace of Westminster) Mr. R. G. T. Hunt MBE, Chairman, Nassau, Bahamas Tel: 416 597 0220 Email: [email protected] Mr. David Knott, Chairman Email: [email protected] [email protected] Email [email protected] Barrow in Furness Tel: 01743 368 552 Email: [email protected] Website www.stgeorgesto.org Haslemere Email: [email protected] Paris Mr. D. Ward, The Society of St George, Philadelphia Sara Jane Gray, Chairman., Andrew M.G. Simpkin, President Email: [email protected] Southend-on-Sea Dar Es Salaam Mr Roger Brown, Secretary, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mrs V Weaver, Mark Golding – President Email: [email protected] Bath & District Mrs S Hankers, E.mail: [email protected] [email protected] Port Elizabeth Women’s Branch Email: [email protected] The St George’s Society Of Baltimore Rev. Robert Webb Chairman Sandra Strang, Secretary/Scribe Tel: 01702 748 702 Limited Tel: 01225 484042 Huntingdon Delaware (USA) Email: [email protected] Col (Retd) DH Bristow OBE DL, Mr. Harry T Aycock, President, Sussex Mr. Andrew A. Lundgren, Sabah Tel: 01480 383166 Email: [email protected] Blackburn and East Lancashire Arun Agarwal, Interim Committee Email: [email protected] Mr M Steel, MJS-Services, Email: [email protected] Mr John Williams, Chairman Email: [email protected] [email protected] The St George’s Society of New York Email: [email protected] Denmark Executive Director Leeds Swale South Florida www.rssgblackburn.org.uk Mr. Simon C Mears, President Clare Risman Mr Paul David, Acting Secretary Cllr Wyn Kidger, Chairman Email: [email protected] Mr Terence Wright, Chairman Executive Director Tel: 01795 471 876. E.mail: [email protected] Bolton Email [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mr. Chris Houghton, Chairman Devonport Sydney Leicestershire The St George’s Benevolent Society of Email: [email protected] The Tower Of London Mrs Elizabeth Page, Mr P M Cavanagh, Email: [email protected] Mr. Leon R. Spence, Chairman, Email: [email protected] Hamilton Tel No: 0116 319 9508 (Membership only open to Yeomen and Texas Mr John W.S.Naismith, President, Email: Bradford employees of the Tower of London) Cheryl Rios, Honorary Secretary Email: [email protected] Georgia [email protected] Mr J A Fergusson, Honorary Secretary. Email: [email protected] Warwickshire Col. John T. Trout, Treasurer Tel: 01274 583654 Lowestoft Toowoomba Email: [email protected] Mr. A. Clive Benfield, Email: [email protected] AFFILIATED SCHOOLS Mr Brian Caton Email: [email protected] Ms Charlotte Christian, Commander Mr. Bob Anderton, President, Staff and children of Camelsdale Primary Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] School City of Birmingham Waterloo Mr D Reynolds, Chairman Warwick Camelsdale Primary School, School Road, Maritime Wessex Mr. Bob Smith, Chairman Gold Coast E-mail: saintgeorgeinbirmingham@hotmail. Mr P Munson, Camelsdale, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 3RN Chairman Mr. Mark Buckley Email: [email protected] Mr. Graham Rumble Email: [email protected] School Tel No: 01428 642177 com E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rssgbirmingham.org.uk Wessex North Dorset Email: [email protected] Zimbabwe (Harare) School email: Dr Jack Skelton Wallace, President Mr. Brian Heathcote, President, [email protected] North Downs Halifax City & County of Bristol Mobile 07923 962 650. Tel: 01747 825 388 Email: [email protected] Head Teacher: Sarah Palmer Mr. S. Millson, Chairman, Carol Dodds, President Mr D Stinchcombe, Email: [email protected] St George’s Primary School, Wallasey Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] St George’s Road, Wallasey, Merseyside Wiltshire North Surrey Hong Kong CH45 3NF City of Liverpool Mr. Lloyd James, Chairman Mr. Roger Felgate, Chairman Mr. Jim Wardell, President, Tel: 0151 638 6014 Mr B K Boumphrey, Email: [email protected] UK AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS Email: [email protected] E.mail: [email protected] Email : [email protected] Email: [email protected] English Toastmasters Association Headteacher: Mr. Bernard Cassidy Northumbria Branch Jakarta Mr. Richard Palmer FMETA C.Inst.S.M.M. St Ives School City of London Mr. A .J. Nicholls, Chairman, Eamonn Sadler, President Mobile 07971 409 977 Three Gates Lane, Haslemere, Surrey Mr. Steven J. Turner, Honorary Secretary Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] GU27 2ES Email: [email protected] Website: www.englishtoastmasters.co.uk School Tel No: 01428 643734 Nottinghamshire Kansai School Email: [email protected] Mr. Colin Slater MBE JP Hon. MA, President Shropshire War Memorials Association City of Wakefield Mr A Gibson Mr Clive I Blakeway Head Teacher: Kay Goldsworthy Mr. Reg West, Secretary. Tel: 01924 864 799 Email: [email protected] E.mail: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Gildersome Primary School Website: www.stgeorgekansai.com City of Westminster Plymouth & West Devon Tel: 01952 550 205 Town Street, Leeds LS27 7AB Tel: 0113 201 2450 Mr. Alan Broomhead, Chairman, Mr. A. Romilly, E.Mail:[email protected] Kuala Lumpur & Selangor, Stourbridge Society of St George Head Teacher: Mrs C M Hoyle Email: [email protected] Sally Addington, President Mr Keith Harris, Radford Email: [email protected] OVERSEAS BRANCHES Email [email protected] Email [email protected]. Danbury Mr Phil J Harwood, Mobile 07973 266 842 Abu Dhabi Website: www.stgeorgesmalaysia.com Mr. Richard Palmer FMETA C.Inst.S.M.M. Email:[email protected] AFFILIATED UNIVERSITIES Mr. Paul Billany, Secretary The Commonwealth Games Council President The English Toastmasters Commonwealth Games England, University of Bolton Rushmoor Email [email protected] Lisbon Association, Email: [email protected] Mr. Aris F. Mattheou Lt. Col Leslie G.A. Clarke - Chairman Mrs B Neasham MBE, Mobile: 07971 409 977 Adelaide E.mail: [email protected] Tel: 020 7831 3444 Executive Director, External Relations Email: [email protected] Telephone: 01483 810 492 University of Bolton Deane Road Bolton Mobile: 07710 230 379 Mrs D Bone, Email:[email protected] Michael Simpson, Interim Committee, Victoria Cross and George Cross Website: www.englishtoastmasters.co.uk Email: [email protected] BL3 5AB Email: [email protected] Bangkok Association Mrs Rebecca Charlotte Maciejewska, Tel: 01204 900 600 www.bolton.ac.uk East Anglia Ms Laura Smith, President Madrid Seahaven Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mr. John Stannard, President Mr. Robert A. Peedle MBE TD.,Chairman Dr F. E. F. Price MBE AFFILIATED CADET GROUPS Tel: 01502 512 734 Email: [email protected] The Countess Mountbatten’s own Legion Tel: 01323 899 985 Brisbane of Frontiersmen Sea Cadets Staines and Egham Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mrs V Skinner, Legion Major Derek Bristow OBE DL MStJ BA The Lammas Park, Wraysbury Road, Staines, Email: [email protected] Melbourne Middlesex TW18 4TT Fenland St Neots Professor Anthony Bailey, Chartered MCIPD Public Affairs Officer, International and Telephone: 01784 469064 Mr. Brian Kierman, Chairman Mr B Chapman, British Columbia c/o The English Speaking Union, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Mr. Shawn Wade, President Victorian Branch, Post Office Box 9427, Home Commands Telephone: 01945 463 774 Email: [email protected] South Yarra, Victoria 3141, Australia Email: [email protected] Wisbech Sea Cadets T.S. Falcon 373 Seven Hills The Order of St. George Officer in Charge: Jade M Merson, Gloucestershire Mrs. Christine Hirst, Chairman California Mombasa Stuart A. Notholt, Grand Scrivener 19 Sandyland, Wisbech PE13 1NX. Mrs Margaret Fuller Telephone 0113 253 5647 Princess Karen Cantrell, Chairman Mrs.V. Knight, Hon. Secretary, Email: [email protected] Mobile: 07341 337135 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Phone Number: 01892 871 662 Email: [email protected]

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 49 All items are available to order on our SHOP WINDOW website www.rssg.org.uk

Payment may be made via PayPal to our email address, [email protected] If you don’t have a PayPal account please type paypal.me/rssg into your internet browser and click to take you to payments, by cheque or please call us on 020 3225 5011 to place your order over the phone. • All major credit or debit cards are accepted For branch officers' regalia, please contact the office

Ref: RSSG003 Ref: RSSG05A Ref: RSSG05B Ref: RSSG05C Ref: RSSG006 Miniature medal with Metal Gilt Enamel Pin Badge Metal Gilt Enamel Pin Badge Metal Gilt Enamel Pin Badge presentation pouch. Metal Gilt Enamel Bar Brooch Butterfly Clutch Fastener Screw Back Fastener Bar Pin Fastener 38mm x 27mm Medal to be worn on the 23mm x 25mm 23mm x 25mm 23mm x 25mm right breast. £10.00 £7.00 £7.00 £7.00 MEMBERS ONLY 23mm x 80mm MEMBERS ONLY MEMBERS ONLY MEMBERS ONLY £39.50 MEMBERS ONLY

XMAS SPECIAL PRICE £5 off now only £17.50 Ref: RSSG062 St George Pin Badge Ref: RSSG007 Ref: RSSG025 Butterfly Clutch Fastener Hand Painted Heraldic Plaque Elegant Rose Brooch 20mm x 20mm (Armorial Bearings) 45mm x180mm with Presentation Box £5.00 £59.50 40mm diameter MEMBERS ONLY £22.50

Ref: RSSG014 Ref: RSSG009 Tie Slide Red Enamel Cuff Links in Presentation Box Ref: RSSG012 in Presentation Box 53mm x 28mm Navy Polyester Members 18mm diameter £17.50 Tie with Armorial Bearings £19.50 MEMBERS ONLY £15.50 MEMBERS ONLY

Ref: RSSG030 Ref: RSSG010 Ref: RSSG029 Small Blazer Button Black Embroidered blazer badge Large Blazer Button 15mm diameter with gold coloured wire 20mm diameter £3.50 Ref: RSSG13A 100mm x 114mm £4.50 MEMBERS ONLY Multi-Motif Shield Tie – Polyester £19.00 MEMBERS ONLY £15.50 MEMBERS ONLY

Ref: RSSG020 Soft Touch Metal Pen with Stylus Ref: RSSG031 Ref: RSSG032 Black Ink 2ft by 3ft St George’s flag 3ft by 5ft St George’s flag £4.50 with eyelets with eyelets £4.00 £6.00 Ref: RSSG15B Ref: RSSG016 Ref: RSSG15A 5 St George’s Day Greetings Cards Pack of 5 red RSSG window/car stickers 5 Blank RSSG Cards with Envelopes with Envelopes 77mm x 72mm 150mm x 150mm 150mm x 150mm £2.50 £5.00 £5.00 MEMBERS ONLY MEMBERS ONLY MEMBERS ONLY

Ref: RSSG018 Ref: RSSG017 Ref: RSSG022 A5 Menu Covers with Armorial Bearings Full Membership Certificate St George’s Day Envelope Stickers Packs of 10 £5.00 2 A4 pages – 130 stickers MEMBERS ONLY MEMBERS ONLY £2.50 £6.00

St GEORGE FOR ENGLAND DecemberApril 20192017

The Royal Society of St George Celebrating our past – looking to the future NEW

In this edition The Patron Saint of England Rudyard Kipling William Harvey Hot Cross Buns ● Ref: RSSG072 Imperial Windsor Tea Blend

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF St. GEORGE – The Premier Patriotic Society of England Founded in 1894. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Patron: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II £3.50 Loose Leaf Black Tea with Rose Petals Ref: RSSG024 Ref: RSSG019 Makes 30-40 cups. Past copy of the St George for England England my England Book Ref: RSSG021 Net Weight 4oz/112g Journal A Treasury of all things English by Favourite Poems of England 1 tin £10.00 Please contact the office for availability Gerry Hanson By Jane McMorland Hunter 2 tins £17.00 £3.50 £9.99 £14.99 Box of 6 tins £45.00

UK Shop Window Order Form Please complete the order form and return it with your payment to: RSSG, P.O. BOX 397 LOUGHTON IG10 9GN. Please make your cheques payable to “The Royal Society of St. George”. Ref No. Description Qty Size Colour Price Total Price

ALL PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE AND PACKAGING FOR UK ORDERS. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE ORDER VIA OUR WEBSITE OR EMAIL YOUR ORDER TO US AT [email protected] FOR PRICES, POSTAGE AND PACKAGING International Customers are responsible to pay for any additional costs such as duties, local taxes or custom clearance fees which may be imposed in their country of residence

NAME ...... ADDRESS...... COUNTY...... POSTCODE ...... EMAIL ...... TEL: ...... DATE ......

Total amount of Cheque £...... If you require any further information, please phone 020 3225 5011 or Email: [email protected] Payment may be made via PayPal to [email protected], by cheque or please call us on 020 3225 5011 to place your order over the phone. All major credit or debit cards are accepted For branch officer's regalia, please contact the office Journal Advertising: Mechanical Data Full Page Colour Price Rate £400 Type Area / Half Page Colour Price Rate £250 Trim Size / Full bleed Non bleed Quarter Page Colour Price Rate £150 Full Page 297 x 210m m / 303 x 216mm 265 x 190mm Eighth Page Colour Price Rate £100 Half Page 130 x 190mm Quarter page 130 x 92mm Extra insertions discounts: Eighth page 62.5 x 92mm 1-3 insertions an extra discount of 5% 4-6 insertions an extra discount of 10% Bleed allowance 3mm 7-12 insertions an extra discount of 15% Vital matter 6mm from edge of page on all sides

Classifieds Production Data All classified advertising must be pre-paid – Files can be sent on disk. – To ensure correct output of The cost is 50p per word with a your files please send by post a laser or crom alin minimum charge of £10 (20 words) proof. – Software – All prices are exclusive of VAT InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop.

Publication Dates Copy Date Deadline Essential Information April 28 February August 30 June All Prices shown are exclusive of VAT December 31 October

Contact – Elizabeth Lloyd Tel: 020 3225 5011 E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.rssg.org.uk The Royal Society of St. George P.O. BOX 397, Loughton, IG10 9GN, England

Are you interested in the Royal Society of St George? Application form on our website at www.rssg.org.uk Would you like to join us? Or telephone the office on 020 3225 5011

Royal Society of St George Mission Statement and Vision

Royal Society of St George Royal Society of St George Vision Mission Statement To be widely recognised as the premier English We will deliver our vision statement by supporting patriotic society; attracting members from all walks the increase of our active Branch network throughout of life; celebrating important dates in English history; England, the Commonwealth and across the world; supporting and encouraging the young; sharing and encouraging sustainable membership growth with the maintaining our Culture; Heritage and traditions; aim of doubling our membership by 2025; increasing awareness in the Society and what it stands for having a voice on issues that affect our country; and particularly amongst the young; ensuring the financial supporting charitable causes. security and stability of the Society with an effectively and efficiently run back office operation; and standing up for and representing our country, its history and traditions, on TV, radio and in the press and social media.