Readers will be delighted to know that despite an absence of reports recently, the Club is very much alive and going strong. And a lot has happened over the past few weeks.

We have inaugurated a new President in Jim Cox who has taken over from Bob Young. Jim retired from the RAF as a Squadron Leader after 32 years service. He lives in Evesham having gained his wings at RAF Pershore and had met his wife, a Dutch girl, at a dance in Evesham Town Hall. He has three children and four grandchildren, so far he says! We warmly welcomed Jim as our new President.

On behalf of all members Peter Penney congratulated and thanked Bob Young for his inspirational and dedicated leadership of the Club. Dennis Hallett also congratulated Bob and the Committee for the amount of work that had been undertaken which had made a great difference to the profile of the Club. And everyone joined Bob in thanking Peter Penney for his unstinting efforts in supporting the Club for the past 15 years and Bob presented him with a special gift to mark the occasion.

We also have a new committee, with Brian Melville as Vice President, Clive Allen as Secretary, Bill Underwood as Treasurer, Brian Ireland as Assistant Treasurer, Grenville Burrows as Speaker Secretary, Chris Donough as Press Secretary, Cliff Blackborrow as the members representative and George Dawson as an Independent assessor.

We have had some very different speakers recently. Rosemary Prosser, a farmer’s wife, and former policewoman, regaled us with a humorous account of her experiences of setting up and managing farm guest houses near Worcester and in Cornwall. She said that husband had once said she had carthorse legs. But none of us, not even Sergeant Major Jones, were brave enough to see if this was true!

Then we had our own Stan Saunders, who spoke about his early years. He grew up near Bognor Regis and attended Dulwich College along with other luminaries such as Bob Monkhouse, Trevor Bailey, and Nigel Farage. An accountant, he and his wife were married in a synagogue which subsequently became a mosque. A fascinating character, Stan is typical of so many of our members who have led full and amazing lives.

And last week we heard more about the Worcestershire postal history since 1840 from Chris Jackson of Redditch.

For more information about our Club and our weekly reports, look at our website (www.eveshamprobus.co.uk) or just turn up for a taster. We meet every Thursday at the Ecgwins Private Members Club in Evesham, starting at 10am for a couple of hours.

Chris Donough