Centenary Annual Report 2010 Royal Over-Seas League
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Royal Over-Seas League social and cultural links worldwide Centenary Annual Report 2010 Royal Over-Seas League Patron Central Council as at 31 December 2010 Her Majesty The Queen Miss Farah Amin Mrs Marilyn Archbold* (Deputy Chairman) Vice-Patron Mr Graham Archer CMG* Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra KG GCVO Mrs Shirley Barr* Mr Ralph Bauer President Mr Clive Carpenter* The Rt Hon the Lord Luce KG GCVO DL Sir Roger Carrick KCMG LVO Mr William Chalmers Chairman Prof Monojit Chatterji Nik Raof Daud Sir Anthony Figgis KCVO CMG Mr Paul Dimond CMG Mrs Patricia Farrant* Deputy Chairman Sir Anthony Figgis KCVO CMG* (Chairman) Mrs Marilyn Archbold Mr Simon Gimson LVO Ms Diana Gray Hon Treasurer Mr Peter Hamlyn Mr Simon Ward FCA Sir James Hodge KCVO CMG Miss Maureen Howley MBE Director-General and Secretary Mr David Jamieson Mr Robert Newell CVO Mrs Anne de Lasta The Rt Hon the Lord Luce KG GCVO DL (President) Vice-Presidents Miss Sheila MacTaggart LVO Their Excellencies the Commonwealth Dr Edmund Marshall Secretary-General and the High Commissioners for Mr David Newman Commonwealth countries in London Mr Ian Partridge CBE Mrs Doreen Regan* The Viscount Boyd of Merton Mrs Lindsay Ross Dame Mary Bridges DBE Mr Geoffrey Thompson OBE Sir Lawrence Byford CBE QPM DL Mrs Pamela Voice Mrs Yvonne Calver Mr Simon Ward FCA* (Honorary Treasurer) The Archbishop of Westminster *Executive Committee The Rt Hon the Baroness Chalker of Wallasey Mr Colin Clark ROSL world headquarters Mr Maneck Dalal OBE Over-Seas House The Dean of Westminster Park Place, St James’s Street Mr Martyn Goff CBE London SW1A 1LR The Lady Gore-Booth Tel: 020 7408 0214 The Lord Imbert CVO QPM Fax: 020 7499 6738 Sir Colin Imray KBE CMG Email: [email protected] Mr Graham Lockwood Web: www.rosl.org.uk The Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales Mr Stanley Martin CVO Acknowledgements The Countess Mountbatten of Burma CBE CD JP DL Design, editing and production: Samantha Whitaker Sir Kenneth Scott KCVO CMG Printing: Hastings Printing Company The Rt Hon the Lord Woolf Front cover: ROSL President Lord Luce escorts HM The Queen through St James’s Palace to meet ROSL members PHOTO : A Lex LLOyd 2 Annual Report 2010 Contents 4 Chairman’s report 6 Director-General’s report 8 Over-Seas House, London 10 Over-Seas House, Edinburgh 11 Centenary events 12 Members’ events 13 Younger members 14 Overseas magazine 15 ROSL-Namibia project 16 ROSL ARTS 19 ROSL branches 30 Honorary Treasurer’s report 31 Financial statements The Royal Over-Seas League was founded in 1910 by Sir Evelyn Wrench to foster international friendship and understanding. ROSL operates under Royal Charter and ‘aims at promoting an enduring multi-racial fellowship pledged to the support of the Commonwealth and to the service of others and humanity at large’. It is required to encourage the arts, particularly among the young people of the Commonwealth. ROSL seeks to fulfill its aims by: • supporting Commonwealth ideals • offering clubhouse hospitality to members • organising annual competitions for young artists and musicians • developing joint welfare projects for disadvantaged communities • providing a network of contacts and representatives around the world ROSL has members throughout the world. There are branches or member groups in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Thailand and the UK, plus reciprocal arrangments with over 85 clubs worldwide. Membership of ROSL is open to men and women who are citizens of Commonwealth countries and of countries which have had constitutional links with the UK at any time since 1910, such as Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, or such citizens of any country which the Central Council shall specify from time to time. www.rosl.org.uk 3 Chairman’s report ooking back on 2010, our centenary Sir Kenneth Scott, also available in the ROSL year, it is hard to know where to start. I Shop), we quickly dried off and started to L took over as Chairman just before the enjoy ourselves. Her Majesty arrived, casting year began, as Stanley Martin generously her usual carpet of warmth around, with HRH suggested, so that I could oversee the whole Prince Philip and HRH Princess Alexandra. year. This meant that, by the time I arrived, all Many members were presented, and it was the hard work had been done, under Stanley’s an evening to cherish. watchful eye. All I had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. And a most enjoyable ride it We found the ROSL branches was - I hope for all of you, as well as for my in good heart, and in good wife and me. standing, everywhere Before the year began, everything had been set in context by Adele Smith’s sparkling The International Branch Conference, that ‘History’ of ROSL (a snip at £8 for the same week, was attended by representatives paperback version from the ROSL Shop). We from all the ROSL branches: in Australia, then launched into the centenary Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, celebrations, of which I’d just like to highlight Switzerland, Thailand and the UK. The idea three: in June, the Centenary Reception at St was not to pat ourselves on the back - James’s Palace, attended by HM The Queen; although we allowed ourselves a bit of that - the International Branch Conference; and the but to ask what sort of ROSL we wanted for three religious services: in Melbourne the future. We were addressed by our Cathedral in March, London in May and President Lord Luce on the monarchy; by Bournemouth in June. Central Council member Simon Gimson, who First the Centenary Reception. We quickly spoke movingly about the Commonwealth; Sir Anthony and Lady Figgis reached the limit of 720 guests laid down by and by Roderick Lakin, who brought us up to PHOTO : M iddLeTOn MAnn St James’s Palace, and I am sorry that some date on the many and varied activities of members were not able to get tickets. For ROSL ARTS. All these are facets of the ROSL those of us lucky enough to book our which those at the conference felt were passage, the start of the evening fundamental, and must remain so. We also was not ideal: security was tight, heard from Dr Alex May (Research Editor of and we’d been asked to arrive the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), well ahead of time. Having who spoke on our founder Sir Evelyn Wrench. obediently done so, we We reviewed our successful education project queued outside waiting for in Namibia, and welcomed two of its the doors to open. Then teachers. An important decision was made the heavens opened, with a that the ROSL should look for other welfare rainstorm of biblical ferocity. projects around the Commonwealth which We were soaked, by the first members might wish to support. real rain for months. But once The three religious services of thanksgiving inside the splendid State for the centenary were all well attended, each Apartments (the subject of an with fine music. I’m very grateful to the Dean excellent book by ROSL Vice-President of Westminster, who gave the address at St 4 Annual Report 2010 James’s, Piccadilly, and to the Lord 2010 was a reminder of for the many extra hours they put in to Lieutenant of Dorset for attending the how lucky we are to have make the various programmes so service in Bournemouth. The most such strong support from successful. I’d also like to pay tribute to memorable for me, perhaps because it Her Majesty as our Patron my colleagues on the Central Council was so far from home, was the service in and the Executive Committee for Melbourne’s magnificent cathedral. House, Edinburgh at the end of the year keeping a benevolent eye on all that I say ‘so far from home’, but the visit was unfortunately snowed off, but took went on, and for their advice, guidance that my wife and I paid to Australia and place successfully in February 2011. We and participation. New Zealand, in February and March, hugely value her role in the life of the Above all, and in conclusion, it was felt, in fact, like a homecoming. In the ROSL. The year also reminded us of how splendid to open the newspapers at the space of three weeks we visited all six generous the patrons, judges and end of December and find that Bob Australian states, and the north and supporters of the Annual Music Newell had been awarded a CVO south islands of New Zealand. Everyone Competition have been over the years, (Commander of the Victorian Order) in we met showered us with warmth and and I’m very grateful to them all. We The Queen’s New Year's Honours List. friendliness, and we found the ROSL decided, in the centenary year, to more That richly-deserved award, in Her branches in good heart, and in good than double the prize money to over Majesty’s personal Order, was the standing, everywhere. The same was £60,000, and I’m delighted to report that perfect curtain fall to a remarkable year. true of a short visit we paid, with the Centenary Appeal, whose purpose is Director-General Robert Newell, and his to endow the prize fund for the Anthony Figgis wife Shanaz, to Toronto in October, to competition permanently at that level, is Chairman attend a centenary reception given by already over halfway towards its target of the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. £1 million. Sincere thanks to all who So this was a memorable year in all have donated and to those who, I’ve no sorts of ways.