PERFORMING his final duty, outgoing President Brian Ireland opened out meeting on Thursday 16 February in his own dignified and inimitable style.

Having heard the news of members and apologies for absence, he then invited fellow member Richard Lawrence to share his life story with us.

Richard began by describing his Dad’s exploits in the Royal Navy and his Mother’s in the ATS during the Second World War. He explained how they came to live in Elmley Castle where his Mother’s family had run the Plough Inn there for many years. He described his carefree childhood and youth in Elmley and Bredon Hill where he became known as a bit of a lad.

He gave a full and highly detailed explanation of his engineering life from 1969 to 2013 with Allen Gears of Pershore. Even the non-engineers amongst us were able to understand the more technical aspects and the practical application of the factory’s outputs.

On a more personal note, we were moved when he described how his first wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour and tragically died a few weeks later. We could understand perfectly why in the circumstances he might have returned to his earlier lifestyle.

However, all that changed when he remarried on Valentine’s Day 1980, and he and his wife have two fantastic grown up children of whom they are immensely proud.

Having retired nearly four years ago, he found he missed the interaction with a wide range of other people and he thanked George Bourne for introducing him to the Probus Club.

Following detailed questions, mainly about the engineering aspects of his talk, Andy Richardson as well as several other members congratulated Richard for his excellent presentation. It was another example of the depth of expertise amongst our members.

We also thanked Brian Ireland for being such an admirable President.

We hold our AGM on 23 February and on 2 March will hear about HMS Hood. Do feel free to join us.

CHRIS DONOUGH