Armada Probus Club
Armada Probus Club Some readers of this column may have the perception that the only activity enjoyed by the members is to meet monthly for a lunch and to hear a speaker. Whilst these are extremely enjoyable events and a lively and varied programme of speakers is drawn up by the speaker secretary Bryan Powell. Club members can and do participate in other activities – visits to castles, museums, gardens, places of interest and theatre trips are organised by the social secretary Alfred Lott. Club member Bill Whitman leads a walking group and the third Wednesday of each month leaving Bookham at 10.00am and arriving for a pub lunch at some hostelry. Another attraction is the luncheon club where members in turn arrange a pub lunch once a month for other members and wives who it should be said are always welcome at the social outings and the walking group. Recently club member Reg Wood and his wife |Beryl very efficiently organised such a lunch at the Anchor at Pyrford lock where they were joined by five other couples where the location, standard of food and the fellowship made it a memorable occasion. In May two visits were organised by the social secretary, Alfred Lott. A party of nineteen went to Dover Castle where there was so much to see from the Roman Lighthouse, the Garrison Church and of course the castle itself. The highlight of the visit was the guided tour through the secret underground tunnels from where the Dunkirk evacuation was masterminded in 1940 when 338,000 allied servicemen where brought back to these shores. Eight people participated in the trip to Leonardslee Gardens on the 25th and with excellent weather the gardens and lake were seen to their best advantage. The doll's house proved to be a highlight for some of the party. The luncheon group met at Clandon Regis Golf Club where a party of eighteen enjoyed an excellent lunch organised by Graham Nicholls and his wife Alma. In June Brian Cox, chairman, welcomed 45 members to the wonderful lunch. Subsequent to the meal the speaker Roger Cansdale was introduced and took as his topic the Basingstoke Canal. His talk was along the lines of past, present and future and he defined the most important dates in the canal’s history from 1778 when Parliament gave the power to build the canal, the beginning of construction in 1788 and opening in 1794. Finally when facing final closure the canal was bought in 1923 by Alec Armswort and in 1966 the Surry and Hampshire Canals Society was founded. In July the chairman welcomed forty nine members to the monthly meeting and afterwards introduced the speaker Eric Martin whose subject was ‘Environmental Health and Safety’. He gave his views on a wide range of topics such as climate change, energy saving, recycling waste disposal, composting and the effective flying. The Armada Probus Club is keen to enlist new members and would warmly welcome professional and businessmen who are fully or partially retired. The contact is Bill Snowsill, the club’s secretary on 01372 454352 or billsnowsill@btinternet.com. Edgar Buckley
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Forty four members of the Armada Probus Club sat down to lunch at Tyrells Wood Golf Club on Wednesday 5th May and afterwards listened to a talk on the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) given by one of its fund raisers David Richmond-Coggan. Founded in 1824 the RNLI’s lifeboats have saved some 140,000 lives with last year being the busiest so far. In 2009 alone the lifeboats were called out 9,200 times resulting in more than 8,000 lives being saved.