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The School Inspector Calls

On the 8th of March the Forum held its annual open meeting when 110 members and guests filled the Church Hall, no spare seats being available.

The speaker for this special occasion was the well-known Yorkshire author and raconteur Gervase Phinn who titled his talk The School Inspector Calls.

In his introduction John Spinner described Gervase as the James Herriot of school inspectors and his talk proved that this description did not flatter him.

Gervase introduced us to, among others, Benedict, a six year old with a remarkable vocabulary, and described an inspection he undertook at his old primary school when he met his favourite teacher and the former headmistress (now 104 years old).

Each story caused great amusement but had a serious message about child care, literacy or general education.  One of Gervase’s favourite subjects is spelling and he asked us who we thought was the best speller of modern times.  We were surprised by the answer – Enoch Powell.

We learnt one or two tips on how to improve our spelling and then Gervase progressed to malapropisms before completing his talk with two poems about his parents.

A member of the audience asked whether he had ever been involved in the theatre and he revealed that he had spent some time in youth theatre playing a variety of classical roles.

The Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Gervase for his most entertaining talk and the audience joined in with loud and appreciative applause.

Veni Vidi Vietnam

On the 22nd of February 45 members of the Forum attended the meeting at the Church Centre, the highest turnout for this season.

The guest speaker was Geoff Queen from Kettlewell whose talk’s title was based on a quotation from Julius Caesar.  The title was ‘Veni Vidi Vietnam’ which indicated that he was going to tell us about a visit to Vietnam.

In fact we learnt about a visit by Geoff and his wife to all three countries which once formed French Indo-China, namely Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, the talk being illustrated by Geoff’s excellent slides.

They found the people in all three countries to be welcoming, kind, forgiving and deeply religious.  They first visited Cambodia where any visitor is made aware of the rule of the Khmer Rouge who attempted to establish a pure socialist state by a policy of murdering all intellectuals and dissenters.

They then moved on to Vietnam, by far the most populous of the three counties where they were impressed by the recovery from the Vietnam War.  A feature of life is the large number of small motor cycles and the problems for pedestrians in avoiding them.

In contrast they found Laos to be much more peaceful with a large proportion of monks in the population.

Finally on the journey home they visited Bangkok and Dubai.

Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Geoff for a fascinating talk.

Geoff Queen donates all speaking fees to Great Ormond Street Hospital and last year his donations totalled over£10,000.

Scotch Whisky – A Bottled History

The guest speaker for the Forum’s meeting held on the 15th of February was Mark Southon who had travelled to Wetherby from Bawtry.  His talk was titled Scotch Whisky – A Bottled History and Forum members were delighted to see a bottle of whisky and some tiny glasses on a table at the front of the meeting.

Although Scotch whisky has been distilled since the late 15th century spirit distillation has been around since the ninth century BC.

Whisky itself was invented by Irish monks in the sixth century.

Mark gave us a potted history of Scotch whisky, the name being derived from a Gaelic word meaning the water of life.  We learned of the difference between malt, grain, blended and single malt whiskys.  The history of whisky is closely tied to smuggling, taxation policies and American prohibition.

Mark explained why Irish whiskey includes an ‘e’ which does not appear in the Scotch version.

After a particularly lively question and answer session Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks and then members took enthusiastic advantage of an invitation to enjoy a small sample of the amber liquid from the bottle that we had noticed on the table.

From Prison to Palace

At the Forum’s meeting on the 8th of February the Speaker Finder John Spinner introduced our guest speaker Veronica Bird OBE whose talk was intriguingly titled From Prison to Palace.

Veronica spent 36 years serving in the prison service rising to the rank of Governor.  She trained in Holloway Women’s Prison before serving in a number of women’s institutions around the country and, after the introduction of equal opportunities legislation, she became Deputy Governor at Armley Prison, one of the first females to achieve this rank in a men’s prison.

She retired as Governor of New Hall Women’s Prison near Wakefield.   Veronica gave us a few statistics such as the fact that of the 86,000 or so prisoners in the UK around 36,000 cannot read or write.  She then related some incidents from her career and compared conditions in prisons from when her career started to the present day.

On her retirement from New Hall Veronica was awarded the OBE and she described the investiture and how the Queen bestows the medal.  Princess Anne is closely involved with the rehabilitation of prisoners and Veronica closed her talk with the amusing story of a visit the Princess made to New Hall whilst Veronica was the Governor.

After Forum members had posed a number of questions Chairman Mike Earle thanked Veronica for a fascinating talk about her interesting life and the people she had encountered.

Songs and Laughter

For our meeting on the 1st of February the Forum’s Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity gave one of  his video presentations titled Songs and Laughter which featured singers and comedians from the 1970s to the present date.

The comedy clips all featured well known comedians such as the Two Ronnies and Les Dawson.

The songs were mainly by established singers such as Cliff Richard, Michael Ball and Tammy Wynette although Duncan found two unknown Irish singers whose efforts were very well received.

Chairman Mike Earle thanked Duncan for warming up the members on a cold day.

On the 8th of March the Forum will hold an open meeting when the guest speaker will be the celebrated Yorkshire author Gervase Phinn whose talk will be titled The School Inspector Calls.

When Forum members have obtained their tickets the remainder will be available for purchase by anyone at the cost of £8 each.

China – All Our Futures

In the absence of Chairman Mike Earle the Forum’s  Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity introduced the guest speaker for the 25th of January Trevor Higginbottom.

Trevor had travelled from Derbyshire to speak to us on the subject of China – All Our Futures.

Trevor works in the education sector and spends three months of each year in Shanghai which has given him a close insight into his chosen subject.  He handed out a sheet with a list of seventeen points which he then discussed with the Forum members.

Top of the list were the facts that nearly a quarter of the world’s population lives in China and it is the world’s second richest country.  One of the more disturbing facts was that China owns approximately one third of USA’s national debt and conflict between the two countries would be disastrous for the world’s finances.

The UK’s relationship with China does not recognise its growing importance.  For instance only three per cent of English pupils are learning Mandarin and the UK is not in the top ten of China’s trading partners.

Trevor stressed that the Chinese system had many drawbacks regarding the lack of democracy and the large gap between wealth and poverty.

Duncan Verity proposed a vote of thanks for a fascinating talk.

Magical Monaco

On the 11th of January the Forum gathered for its first meeting after the Christmas break.  Members stood for a moments silence in memory of member Gordon Wilson who died during the break.

The guest speaker was Graham Read, a professional motorsport and motoring writer, whose talk was titled Magical Monaco subtitled From the Royal Family to the Grand Prix.

He began with a short history of the Principality which was established in 1297 when Francois Grimaldi led a conquest of the area.  The famous casino was established in 1861 when Monaco took the form we recognise today.  After a mention of the Monte Carlo Rally Graham devoted the rest of his talk to the Monaco Grand Prix which dates back to a race established in 1929 although it was not included in the Formula 1 World Championship until 1955.

Graham featured many well-known names such as Ayrton Senna and Graham Hill and described some of the incidents and accidents from across the years.  He completed his talk with a video of a circuit of the course taken by an on-car camera.

Mike Earle thanked Graham Read for a very enjoyable talk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witches Wizards Brews and Broomsticks

 

44 members gathered at the Church Centre for the Forum’s last meeting of 2016 on the 30th of November.

The guest speaker was Professor Mike Green, Emeritus Professor of Forensic Pathology at the University of Sheffield.  In a long and varied career Mike worked with the South Australia Flying Doctor Service and as a GP in Leeds before becoming an academic.

His talk was titled Witches Wizards Brews and Broomsticks which featured the history of witchcraft from biblical times to the present day and the relationship between witchcraft and medical practice up to modern times.

In Medieval times people identified as witches were principally women and persecution was particularly rife in Northern Europe.  The persecution of witches was a consequence of the rejection of the Catholic religion and, in the reign of James I in particular, resulted in many executions.

The hero of the story is Nicholas Culpepper who realised that some of the potions involved in witchcraft appeared to have beneficial effects and quantified these benefits, forming the basis for modern pharmacology.

Mike mentioned the Pendle Witches trial and the effect this has had on this area of Lancashire to the present day.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Professor Green for keeping members royally entertained.

The Forum’s Christmas lunch is on the 7th of December at the Bridge Hotel Walshford and meetings restart on the 11th of January.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

On the 23rd of November the Forum welcomed Helen Murray-Sharpe as guest speaker.  Helen is a volunteer fund raiser with Yorkshire Air Ambulance which was the subject of her talk.  The talk covered two aspects of the work of the Air Ambulance, the operational side of the organisation and how it works as a charity.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance began in 2000 operating from a Portakabin at Leeds /Bradford Airport.  After it was involved in the rescue of TV personality Richard Hammond in 2007 he featured the organisation in a programme titled Helicopter Heroes which greatly raised its profile.  There are now two helicopters, one based at RAF Topcliffe and the other at Nostell Priory near Wakefield.  These bases enable 90% of the population of Yorkshire to be reached within one hour.  At the Nostell base there is an air desk whose operator monitors all 999 calls in the area and can break in to the conversation to offer air ambulance assistance.  Patients are usually flown to the nearest of four major trauma centres, in Leeds, Hull, Sheffield or Middlesbrough.

Helen also related how the air ambulance works with Embrace, an organisation based in Barnsley which provides emergency care for young children.  Yorkshire Air Ambulance is a charity totally reliant on donations for its existence.   For instance its cost is £44 million each year and the average cost of each mission is £3,420.

Helen summarised the methods of fund raising used which never involve harassment of potential donors.  Forum members posed many questions to Helen and a collection was taken to which members generously contributed.

Legends of the Brass Band World

On the 16th of November the Forum’s guest speaker was Chris Helme.  Among his many interests Chris played the tuba in the West Yorkshire Police brass band, having joined his local brass band at the age of nine.

His talk was titled Legends of the Brass Band World and he began by explaining the appeal of this form of music where most styles can be presented.  He illustrated this by playing short extracts of music by Abba and Tchaikovsky played by well-known bands.  He then related the history of brass bands from their inception at the start of the nineteenth century as village bands and the formation of bands sponsored by industrial concerns until the First World War intervened when many bands disappeared or were temporarily disbanded.

Many bands reformed when peace returned and band competitions became as important as they are today.  Chris related the careers of two bandsmen, Edwin Firth from Skipton who was featured on a celebrated recording produced in 1913 but who was killed in June 1918 and Arthur Laycock from Todmorden who was one of the first full-time professional bandsmen but died at the early age of 42 whilst fulfilling an engagement in Cornwall.

Chris Helme has written a successful book on this subject What Brass Bands Did for Me.

Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Chris for using his passion for brass bands to provide the Forum with an entertaining morning.