ALL members wish their best wishes be known to honorary life member Ron Tarry, who we are sure is being well looked after by his ladies, and also to Cliff Blackborrow following his knee operation.

Our speaker was Ken Ingamells, a former Met Office weather forecaster, from Stowe. His subject was the Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Ken delivered a full account of Shackleton’s explorations, including his three trips to Antarctica. On the third occasion, his ship, the Endurance, trapped in the ice and sank. Shackleton and five others rowed to the island of South Georgia, some 800 miles away and arranged for all the ship’s crew to be rescued. Shackleton's fourth expedition aimed to circumnavigate Antarctica but on 5 January 1922, he died of a heart attack off South Georgia. He was buried on the island.

As a weather forecaster, Ken has travelled the world and has been to Antarctica himself 12 times and his photographs illustrated the conditions and dangers superbly. Trevor Reek thanked Ken on our behalf.

Next week, on April 16, we have a members’ morning, followed by Bob Shaw on Defford on April 23.

By the way, our rant of the week, led by Bill Underwood, focused on the frequency of news stories about hardworking families, GPs and care. Bill should know that families are always ‘hardworking’ just as our money is always ‘hard earned’ and pensioners are always ‘poor’; except for Nige of course who isn’t a pensioner yet!

CHRIS DONOUGH