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.
This year Ann Evans hosted the event at her house, The Tuft, in Chesham Bois. This was the original location for Christmas Drinks in the earlier years, until the Society became too large.
many of our favourite carols.
It was a very joyful occasion, and our thanks go to Ann for hosting the event again, Ann Tennant for the lovely canapes and to Kay for organising the event.
This year we chose a new venue for the AGM – the Jubilee Hall in Amersham. This is a new building on Rectory Hill, near the railway bridge, and just down the hill from Dr Challoner’s and is the home of the 2nd Amersham-on-the-Hill Scout Group.
There were about 33 members in attendance, and chairman, Colin Picton, kicked off the meeting at 7:30. Colin went through the formal part of the evening with approval of last year’s minutes and a run through of all the events we had enjoyed over the past year. Membership remains at about 110, and Colin welcomed several new members to the Society.
2Ann Lawrence asked a question about older members. Some members are no longer able to attend any of our meetings but still wish to keep in touch with the society. Ann asked whether it would be possible to let these members become ‘honorary members’ with no fee, but still included in emails and sent copies of the newsletter. David Powell said that, as treasurer he should point out that newsletters and postage would cost £4 per annum. The chairman proposed a vote on the issue and it was carried unanimously. The society will now offer an honorary membership to those who can no longer attend meetings.
Ann Tennant then served us all with dinner with three choices of main and several alternate desserts. We are all very thankful to have Ann, and are constantly surprised at how she prepares such good food on her own at such reasonable prices.
locations in the UK, both in Snowdonia. The flower is the only Alpine bulb in the UK and is probably a remnant from the ice-age.
No-one was absolutely sure whether our 2021 drinks party would go ahead, due to rising numbers of Covid.
Bright blue matching chairs and, cheerful garden flowers adorned the crisp white tablecloths. At this juncture, our thanks to the ‘flower girls’ as they were referred to. The guests had come laden with their own wine, fruit juice, beer and fizzy water and people on the tables introduced themselves. I maintain that Welsh is my first language and, was fortunate enough to be educated through the medium of Welsh from the age of 3 to 21. I was especially pleased to catch up with a few people who spoke Welsh and spent a while chatting to Bill Jones about the delights of Amlwch and Anglesey in particular!
Table by table, we were invited to the serving area, where the To Dine For ladies had set up a veritable spread. Our food had been pre-ordered, I had salmon, others had chicken and there was a vegetarian option, all adorned by a variety of salads, I have to say it was very tasty. We had olive and chilli bread, which you could wash down with the drink of your choice. Extra food was available if you wanted a top up. Chatter, covering a multiple of varied subjects, was constant. David Powell managed to pop round each group to photograph everybody deep in conversation. For dessert there was fruit salad, tiramisu, chocolate tart with lashings of cream, should you want it. To round off the meal tea and coffee were served with some lovely chocolate mints. All in all, I would say the afternoon was a massive success, everybody was pleased to catch up, after such a long time of being at home.
I would like to give a special mention to Ernest Morris, whose delightful garden we enjoyed and for the loan of the gazebos by Alan Longshaw. Thanks too to David, Gwyndaf, Alan, Peter Johnston and Colin Thomas for erecting these and, getting the furniture in situ; hopefully it was dismantled a bit quicker than it went up. Thank you very much to Kay for her organisational skills and making the afternoon such a success, we all know that these events, don’t ‘just’ happen.