Ricardian Bulletin Contents Summer 2006 2 From the Chairman 3 Society News and Notices 6 Media Retrospective 8 News and Reviews 11 Celebrating 50 Years: The Events - update 12 The Schools Competition 15 Celebrating with Isolde: a vice-president is honoured by Phil Stone 17 Troops and Tactics by Bill Featherstone 25 Ricardian Heroes: George Awdry by John Saunders 29 The Leicester Statue by Elizabeth Nokes 32 Memories from the North by Mary O’Regan 35 The Society’s Earliest Members 36 News from Barley Hall 38 The Biographical Index by Ian Rogers 39 The Man Himself 41 The Debate: Who murdered the Princes? 48 Hastings and the News from Stony Stratford by Gordon Smith 50 Logge Notes and Queries: by Lesley Boatwright 53 I Take You, Anne, With All Your Lands … by Moira Habberjam 55 Beyond The Papal Pale or Simply the Wrong Sort of Affinity? Part 1 by Marie Barnfield 58 Postscript to Louis XI’s Lost Effigy by Geoffrey Wheeler 59 ‘Things they never said’ by Brian Wainwright 60 Correspondence 68 The Barton Library 69 Book Review 70 Letter from New South Wales 72 Report on Society Events 77 Future Society Events 79 Branches and Groups 85 New Members 87 Obituaries and Recently Deceased Members 88 Calendar Contributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. Articles and correspondence regarding the Bulletin Debate should be sent to Peter Hammond and all other contributions to Elizabeth Nokes. Bulletin Press Dates 15 January for Spring issue; 15 April for Summer issue; 15 July for Autumn issue; 15 October for Winter issue. Articles should be sent well in advance. Bulletin & Ricardian Back Numbers Back issues of the The Ricardian and The Bulletin are available from Judith Ridley. If you are interested in obtaining any back numbers, please contact Mrs Ridley to establish whether she holds the issue(s) in which you are interested. For contact details see back inside cover of the Bulletin The Ricardian Bulletin is produced by the Bulletin Editorial Committee, General Editor Elizabeth Nokes, and printed by St Edmundsbury Press. © Richard III Society, 2006 1 From the Chairman solde Wigram’s crucial role in the refounding of the Society was described in the Spring Bul- I letin, and I am very pleased to report that we have given her a celebratory tea at her retirement home in Hampshire to celebrate it. Isolde does not travel to meetings very easily now and it was important that we should take a part of our anniversary celebrations to her. We kept it small, but the President, a vice-president, members of the Executive Committee and Rita Diefenhardt- Schmitt from the Continental Group were there. Indeed, our anniversary year is progressing nicely, a particular success having been the much oversubscribed seminar on military matters at the Tower of London. The four speakers were ex- cellent and Chris Gravett even embellished his talk with a practical demonstration in fifteenth- century armour. Read more in Bill Featherstone’s review. Our series of retrospective articles on events and personalities from the past fifty years con- tinues. This time we focus on George Awdry and the unveiling of the Leicester statue in 1980. George was a unique character who will be well remembered by many members. Can it really be twenty-six years since the statue was unveiled by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, stand- ing in for her son, our Patron? As we are told, time flies! In this issue, too, we are further remind- ed of the early days through the reminiscences of some long-standing Ricardians. There is our usual mix of items and it is good to see articles by Marie Barnfield and Moira Habberjam about Queen Anne Neville in this, the 550th anniversary year of the queen’s birth. There will be more in the autumn with the second instalment of Marie’s article as well as a fea- ture in the winter issue. Instead of the usual debate, this time we have three different views on the fate of the Princes in the Tower and we encourage you to respond. To coin a phrase, this one will run and run. After having taken over from the ‘legendary’ Carolyn Hammond in 2001, Jane Trump is about to stand down as Society Librarian, and on behalf of everyone, I thank Jane for her sterling work during the last five years. Rising postal charges and easier access to information via the internet inevitably mean that borrowing has changed, and in light of this, together with advances in information technology, we are now looking at how best to make use of our invaluable library resource in the future. Meanwhile, we have a new librarian in Keith Horrey, and I welcome him to the team. He takes over later in the year. Pilgrimages have been described as the ‘package holidays of the Middle Ages’, but there was more to them than that, of course, and in July there will be a modern ‘pilgrimage’ to raise money for Barley Hall, as well as other charities, with a forty-mile walk from Nostell Priory to York. After you have read more about it on page 36, I would urge you to sponsor members who are taking part. Barley Hall is a very worthy Ricardian cause. Writing this at the beginning of May, I look forward to the next anniversary event, at Bar- nard’s Inn, when our Patron will present the prizes to winners of the schools’ essay and poster competitions. There will be a report of the evening in the Bulletin in September. In the meantime, you can see some entries on our much improved and impressive website. Finally, I hope everyone will continue to enjoy the anniversary year, whether it be through events or the pages of the Bulletin and, depending upon whether you are north or south of the equator, may you have a warm summer or a mild winter. Phil Stone 2 Society News and Notices The 2006 Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society will take place at 12.00 noon, on Saturday 30 September 2006, at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York. Nominations for the committee and motions for the agenda should be received by the Secretary not less than fourteen clear days before the date of the AGM - i.e. by Friday 15 September, 2006. All nominations must be proposed, seconded and accepted in writing by the member proposed. All motions must be proposed and seconded in writing. Membership Matters Since taking over the membership roles in early February it has been a busy time. The increase in subscriptions for members, effective October 2005, has meant that about half the membership have needed to update their standing orders to reflect the increase and although many of these were in place by the time the subscriptions were collected this was not universally the case and reminders have had to be sent out. At the same time we have had to send out reminders to mem- bers actually to pay their subscriptions for the year. All this is an additional expense for the Soci- ety and it would be appreciated if members could ensure they pay their subscriptions on time, which is October, and pay the correct amount for their category. Membership Category If your membership category does change do please advise us. If you qualify to take advantage of the senior citizen concession we do need to be told as records are not automatically adjusted when members reach the age of sixty. Although we do hold the date of birth for recent members this is a comparatively new innovation and we do not have this information for the majority of members. A number of you in the senior citizen category have written to say that they thought they had been overpaying their subs for some years. However, the senior citizen concession was only reduced to 60, from 65, in 2005. Direct Debit Payments Another problem that has emerged is that although some members completed and sent in new standing order forms for payment last October, and these were received by the membership de- partment, they consequently have either been lost in the mail to the relevant bank or the bank has not processed the instruction. Several members have raised the question of whether they could pay their subscriptions by direct debit. The Executive Committee investigated this possibility a few years ago and came to the conclusion that it was not feasible. In order to offer the direct debit option, where the Society would be assigned the right to deduct subscriptions, and any revised subscriptions, directly from members’ bank accounts, members of the Executive Committee would need to provide substan- tial personal financial guarantees. The Committee felt that, as they are volunteers who receive no financial remuneration for their work, they were not prepared to undertake such guarantees. The recent increase in the subscription rates has generated a lot of work with existing stand- ing orders having to be cancelled and replacement ones completed. The direct debit system would undoubtedly simplify matters as the Society could implement the revised subscription 3 direct with the members’ banks. In view of the matter being raised by members the Committee has again discussed the direct debit option and a possible solution is being investigated. Watch this space. Finally a big thank you to all members who have responded to our letters, for the donations that have been made and for all the good wishes and thanks for work undertaken by the Society’s volunteers. Brian and Wendy Moorhen Membership Department New Vice President for Australasia The Society’s Executive Committee has created the post of Vice President, Australasia, to provide an effective means of contact with the Ricardian membership in Australia and New Zealand.