September Talk
Judy Theobald worked as a newspaper reporter for 30 years, plus magazine editor and BBC radio presenter as well as having been a police officer, freelance writer and theatrical landlady. Not remotely educational or instructive, the talk (with a few poems thrown in) was a fun stroll through a long life of things not having quite worked out as they were meant to. Everyone in the hall laughed a lot - she really was amusing and full of fun. She was the author of the poems - another string to her bow!
Sonia Keeble
October Talk
After our A.G.M. on September 15th we had a visit from Paul Nelhams who is one of the Hayling Community Responders, volunteers working for the South Central Ambulance Service. Unfortunately, at the time of our talk there were only 5. The responders have been running for 20 years and are responsible for the funding and installation of 20 defibrillators across Hayling Island, they look after and check them each month. This is life saving equipment used in the cases of cardiac arrest.
He went on to tell us that we can all make a difference in a person's outcome after a cardiac arrest, on finding someone in trouble, by remembering to first call an ambulance whose staff will tell you where the nearest machine is, and a code which will unlock it. While someone locates the machine, someone else will prepare the patient by remembering ABC:
- Airway - tilt the head to clear the airway
- Breathing - is the patient breathing? If not...
- Compressions - interlocking your fingers and placing your hands in the centre of the chest. Push down hard and release twice per second, helped if you do this while singing 'Nellie the Elephant'.
The ambulance call handler will help by talking to you until a medic arrives.
If you have a defibrillator, switch it on and it will tell you what to do. Carry on until a paramedic arrives or the person shows signs of life.
It was very interesting and I’m sure we all felt a little more confident than at the beginning.
Sonia Keeble
November Talk
After 26 years in the military, Lt Col Jeremy Prescott went on to start the Sacrifice and Remembrance Charity which was set up to help ex military people who were disabled or suffering from combat stress. They have raised £24,000 so far. This has been achieved through the sale and promotion of the red poppies.
Jeremy told us the history of the poppy in a very moving and interesting way. A young soldier, called John McCrae in the First World War observed a devastated field of battle where a symbol of life, a lone poppy, bloomed and that inspired him. He wrote the poem which became so famous, 'In Flanders Field'. It was published in a newspaper in 1915.
Cecil Roughton who was fighting in the trenches in France in 1916 when he picked the oldest known First World War poppy which went on public display in 2012. He had given the poppy to his girlfriend in 1923.
An American lady called Moina Michael decided to promote the poppy as a flower of remembrance and bought 24 silk poppies which she sold for a donation. A French lady called Anna Guerin travelled throughout America and met French widows and orphans. She encouraged them to make paper poppies and she sold them to the British Legion.
Major George Howson, once demobbed, managed to acquire a grant of £2,000 from the British Legion. He set up a poppy factory where he employed disabled ex-veterans.
Nowadays the sale of poppies is extremely successful and has led to wonderful displays such as the creation of the Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey on the Thursday before remembrance Sunday or the Field of Red at the Tower of London's moat. 890,000 poppies fill the space!
Maggi Bridgman
Bobbie won the 2008 fiction prize at the National Academy of Writing and the New Delta review Creative Nonfiction Prize 2010. She has worked as a barmaid, mushroom picker, film extra, maths coach, cabinet minister's private secretary, care assistant and volunteer adult literacy teacher as well as in social research and government policy. Her talk was lively, interesting and full of inspiring quotes from other authors, such as 'We should be continually jumping off cliffs and developing wings on the way down' - Kurt Vonnegut.
Jane is an actress and historian with 30 years of experience bringing history to life in museums, theatres, heritage sites and u3a meeting venues! Her talks are stand alone theatrical performances using original and replica objects and costumes to illustrate the talks.
Passports, Assassins, Traitors and Spies was the title of the talk at June's monthly meeting The speaker, Martin Lloyd, had worked for the HM Immigration Service for 24 years. He now appears on television and gives talks on the radio and to groups. He told stories of how three passports have played their influential role in the course of history: an attempted assassination which altered the regulations for issuing passports; the capture of a spy which caused a worldwide modification to the design of the document and for one person the passport itself which turned into a killer.
By popular demand, Andrew Negus came back to us for a 4th time to tell us about his travels in the Far East. The talk was as full of anecdotes and humour as ever and included some adventures such as meeting some Komodo dragons but avoiding being eaten by them! In addition he saw the largest Buddhist temple in the world - the Lotus on the Lake, built in 800 AD. He visited the live volcano Mount Bromo and was offered boiled eggs from a volcanic pool. While he was in Java he was warned not to put any valuables in his trouser pockets because thieves would come and slash the trouser leg just below the pocket, remove your wallet and you wouldn't feel anything until you noticed blood trickling down your leg! Andrew Negus found a way round this by putting a row of safety pins below the pocket. He was not robbed!
After security checks, we were given photo identity tags to wear and escorted around HMS Excellent, this being the oldest shore training establishment within the Royal Navy, and the location of the Naval Command Headquarters.
Also, here was a replica of the old warship HMS Charlotte, the original Naval Gunnery School, whose name was later changed to HMS Excellent. Built at Whale Island to perpetuate the memory of the original Naval Gunnery School. This is an incredible model, every detail exact to the original, the gun ports with canon, rigging, and figurehead. Originally outside the entrance to HMS Excellent in 1936, over the years deterioration set in and it is now housed inside and being renovated.
We concluded our tour by seeing the Queen Charlotte figurehead in the grounds, and the Parade ground where the Platinum Jubilee rehearsals were held. As well as its reputation as a gunnery school it is renowned as the Royal Navy's experts in drill and ceremonial.