On 10th May we held our 24th AGM at Coleshill Village Hall.
There was an excellent turnout of 38 members.
Chairman Gwyndaf John opened proceedings at 6:30 welcoming several members who have not been with us for a while and several new members. He then moved on to the formal part of the evening, going through apologies for absence, approval of last year’s minutes and running through all the events that we have held during 2023/4.
Membership stands at 113 plus 4 honorary members
Lloyd Jones gave us his report as Treasurer saying that the Society actually had a surplus of £475 over the year, with a bank balance of £4419.96. Lloyd explained that we have kept membership at £10 per year and that the Committee tries to make each event break even.
Gwyndaf revealed that our Minutes Secretary, Colin Picton, is standing down to spend more time with his grandchildren, and thanked Colin for his years of work as secretary and as our previous chairman.
Our committee is now short staffed and we really need at least one more volunteer to help with the planning and organisation. The position is not very arduous, and only involves about 6 meetings per year held in one of the committee members’ homes.
The existing committee was then unanimously voted in for another year’s term.
Under ‘Any Other Business’ the possibility of another trip to Wales was raised. We can not hope to rival the trips that Jonathan Peglar planned in previous years, but could use a commercial company to arrange a trip for us if there is sufficient support.
There was a broad approval for this idea.
At 7:00 the chairman closed the formal part of the evening and Ann Tennant appeared to serve everyone supper.
It is always a wonder that Ann can do so much on her own. There was an excellent choice of a chicken or a beef main course and a wide variety of deserts.
After the meal, our speaker took the floor.
Our own Treasurer, Lloyd Jones, had been persuaded to talk to us about his time in the police force, more particularly, in Special Branch.
Lloyd started his career in Gwent Constabulary, moving to Panda cars and then to CID.
The chief constable of Gwent was quite adventurous for the time, and as well as introducing the panda cars, also took up the offer to create a Special Branch within Gwent. It was quite a coincidence that the Chief Constable’s daughter is one of our newest members – Gail Baldwin!
Lloyd volunteered for this embryo Special Branch with tasks such as providing VIP security and monitoring shipping.
Lloyd was trained both by the Metropolitan Police in London and by the SAS in Herefordshire.
After 6 or 7 years he was moved from Gwent to the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, which was a far larger organisation.
Lloyd described the Force’s organisation and the different squads within the force, covering Head of State protection, Irish Terrorism, Extremist organisations, Naturalisation issues, Rest of World threats and Surveillance.
He described how surveillance is very discreet and involves very large teams following suspects, who, under normal circumstances, would never know that they were being followed. However, this can be difficult if the team has to travel to small locations.
Lloyd described some of the duties of personnel in the protection squad. This included planning the VIPs travel, liaising with local security staff, checking exits, seating arrangement and billing etc. It also meant that the security team ate in the best restaurants and travelled first class with their charges. Often the VIPs had quite a close relationship with those they were protecting. Lloyd recalled that Margaret Thatcher objected to her Special Branch operatives being changed and would sometimes offer to make them tea!
The UK security staff were discreet as opposed to US security which tended to make themselves obvious.
UK staff used to use Walther PPK pistols, but changed to bulkier Smith & Wesson revolvers after an incident when the automatic pistol jammed. Lloyd described the care and maintenance of the weapons and the firing practise that they undertook.
When Lloyd worked at Special Branch it was just before computers were widely used and in those days all record keeping and research was carried out by hand with Desk Officers and civilian staff.
Not so long afterwards the Flying Squad, Art & Antiques Squad and Special Branch were all brigaded within ‘Specialist Operations’ and the National Crime Agency assumed some of these roles.
We all found Lloyd’s talk fascinating and Gwyndaf led a vote of thanks for such an interesting and informative talk.