AGM and Supper. After the formal business last Friday evening 47 members and guests enjoyed a convivial time together, with another excellent meal prepared by Isobel Gill followed by a ‘virtual’ auction conducted by Chris Mills. Our thanks are due to Isobel and her team and to Chris, David Freke and Ilona Sekacz for all the work they put in to ensure the evening was a success.
As the days lengthen, there are many activities on offer in Kineton and the surrounding area.
Saturday 18 April 2015. Clive Benfield, Lord of the Manors of Kineton and Little Kineton, has invited members to join The Royal Society of St George, Warwickshire at their St George’s Day Banquet in St Mary’s Guildhall, Coventry, on Saturday 18 April, 2015 at 7.15 for 8.00pm. Click here to view booking form with further details.
Sunday 26 April, 2015. The Lighthorne History Society had invited members to join them at an exhibition and talk on Bruce Bairsfather and his Association with the Verney Family in Lighthorne Village Hall at 2.30 pm on Sunday 26 April.
“Captain Bruce Bairnsfather became nationally famous as a World War I cartoonist, with his depiction of the soldier “Old Bill”. He also witnessed first-hand one of the 1914 Christmas Day truce football matches which took place in no-man’s land.
On 2 August 1914 he enlisted in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and by November he was serving on the front line in Belgium. He started drawing on scraps of paper, doodling and designing comic characters, one of which became Old Bill. He sent several of these sketches and greetings cards to 27 year old Clare Verney in Lighthorne and the exhibition will include Clare Verney’s album, together with other sketches and photographs.
Prior to joining the army Bruce acted in, stage-managed and designed elaborate sets for pantomimes for the Verney family, that were staged in a specially constructed theatre in the grounds of Lighthorne Rectory, where Clare lived with her parents. Follow this link for further information on Bruce Bairnfather’s Lighthorne connection, http://www.lighthornehistory.org.uk/site/wp-content/uploads/LH186.pdf
We are very fortunate to have persuaded Mark Warby, editor of the Old Bill Newsletter to come and talk to us about Bruce’s Lighthorne connection and to show us his material, which has been recently exhibited at the RSC at Stratford. Tea and refreshments will be available after the talk. Entrance is free to members of the Lighthorne History Society, membership of which is available on the day at £4 per annum. Otherwise the cost of entrance to non-members is £4.”
Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 May, 2015. Brian Lewis will be opening the Windmill at the top of Pittern Hill for public viewing between 2.00pm and 5.00pm on both days.
Saturday 16 May 2015 Warwickshire Parishes Symposium. Details of this interesting event, together with an application form, were circulated in the first March newsletter. The K&DLHG has offered to man a stall for the day.
More K&DLHG news
Next meeting. A reminder that, on Friday 17 April 2015 at 7.30pm, Chris Rice will be talking about The Landscape of Compton Verney.
Subscriptions. For those of you who have not already re-joined, annual subscriptions (still £7-50 per person) are now due and can be paid at the April meeting. The Group’s programme card for 2015-16 is now available.
Outings 2015. Further details of the three summer outing will be included in the next newsletter in early April, and bookings can be made at the meetings in April and May.
New K&DLHG Secretary required. Most of you will know by now that I have decided the time has come for me to step down as secretary. At the AGM I gave formal notice that I am determined to give up by 30 September 2015 (by which time I will be well into my eighteenth year as secretary).
If you or someone you know would like to find out what taking over as secretary might involve, please get in touch with me (tel: 01926-640545, email: ashley@pasgas.plus.com) or our chairman, David Freke (tel: 01295-670516 or 07876-290044 email: frekedj@globalnet.co.uk) as soon as possible.
Even if you do not feel that the secretarial work is for you, please give serious thought to joining the committee and bringing some fresh ideas to our programme planning.
With best wishes
Peter Ashley-Smith, K&DLHG secretary 22 March 2015