talks programme - April - AUGUST 2018
April 4th No Meeting
______________________________________________________________________
April 11th Norman Maudsley Finland in the Raw
Norman is widely travelled. He will be showing a pictorial record of his experiences trekking with huskies above the Arctic Circle, in temperatures as low as -30 deg. Centigrade.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 18th Peter Barker Life in Russia Today
Peter is the Chairperson of the Exeter Yaroslavl Twinning Association which promotes friendship between Exeter and Yaroslavl, Exeter's twin city in Russia.
Peter has been to Russia 10 times, staying as a personal guest in private Russian homes. In return, they have stayed with him in Exeter. Through these visits he has been encouraged to learn the language and has many good Russian friends.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 25th Professor Jeremy Black The World of James Bond
Jeremy has been a Professor of History at the University of Exeter since 1996, working on post 1500 military history, eighteenth-century British history, international relations, cartographic history and newspaper history.
Jeremy has lectured extensively in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the USA . He is and has been on a number of editorial boards including the Journal of Military History, the journal of the Royal United Services Institute, Media History, the International History Review, and History Today and was editor of Archives. He is the author of over 100 books, especially on eighteenth century British politics and international relations. Some of his most recent publications include War and World 1450-2000, The British Seaborne Empire, Maps and History, George III and European Warfare in a Global Context 1660-1815.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 2nd Richard Haigh The History of the Cosa Nostra,
The Sicilian Mafia
One can easily be seduced into identifying with the heightened sense of family, danger, ambition and honour in the portrayal of the Mafia in films and novels. In truth the behaviour of the Mafia is more horrifically brutal and its sense of “honour” more grotesquely distorted than could ever be part of a Hollywood film.
The term “mafia” has come to be used for criminal organisations all over the world but few people have a clear understanding of the origins and development of the Sicilian original, “Cosa Nostra”. This talk attempts to explain how the secret criminal organisation was born at the time of Italian unification and came to be embedded into the very fabric of Italian political and economic life.
Cosa Nostra made billions of dollars from heroin, murdered with impunity, and established links with the Italian political establishment which have stood the test of time.
Richard is a member of the Club Italia of Totnes. He is a retired college principal and an amateur student of Italian history.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 9th Tom Lomas John Lewis, from London to Exeter
Tom grew up in Wiltshire but for the last two years has been based in the John Lewis store in Exeter where he is Department Manager of Fashion. He joined John Lewis at the age of 17 and has been in the business for 10 years, working in 6 shops around the country ( mainly in the South ). In his talk Tom will be outlining the history of the John Lewis Partnership and will be explaining how it is different from other organisations, and their next steps as a business.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 16th AGM
_______________________________________________________________________
May 23rd Dr Simon Miller Historical Thrillers :
Making It Up - Or Telling The Truth?
Simon has a PhD from Durham and taught Mexican and Spanish history at universities in UK and US before turning to writing noir thrillers, being fascinated by 'what-if' questions and tension between fact and fiction.
Simon's book "Ebolowa", published in 2017, is based on a real life case of courage, complicity and murder in French West Africa in the 1950s. This is a work of historical fiction based on a true story but taking careful liberties with the facts, and Simon will be telling the story behind the book and addressing the question of fact versus fiction.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 30th Eileen Dillon Votes for Women ?
Eileen is a National Trust Learning Officer based at Killerton and is the co-curator of the "Votes for Women?" Exhibition at Killerton which forms part of the National Trust’s 2018 Women and Power Programme marking the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, which empowered some women by giving them the right to vote in British parliamentary elections.
Eileen will be speaking about the Exhibition which tells the story of two Killerton women, Gertrude and Eleanor Acland who campaigned on opposite sides during the campaign for women’s suffrage. Gertrude was a founder member of Exeter’s Anti-Suffrage League and hosted an anti-suffrage garden party at Killerton in 1910, whilst her niece, Eleanor, was the Vice-President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in the South West, and later a founder member of the Liberal Women’s Suffrage Union.
Eileen and community actor Louise Prideaux will be performing a 10 min drama linked to the exhibition.
As part of the Votes for Women project, Killerton's costume collection has been relaunched with the theme: ‘Branded: fashion, femininity and the right to vote’, which examines how women’s dress became politicised during the suffrage campaign and how the suffrage campaigners were early proponents of branding to further their cause.
Details of the Exhibition can be seen on the National Trust site at :
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton/features/votes-for-women
_______________________________________________________________________
June 6th Lt Col Jon Coomber Training at Lympstone
As Chief of Staff at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines at Lympstone, Jon is responsible for the delivery of all training and has oversight of the operation of the Centre. Since joining the RM in 1993 Jon has had a wide range of responsibilities including operations in Northern Ireland, several years as a Mountain Leader with deployments to Kosovo and Afghanistan, operations in Sierra Leone, counter piracy operations around the Gulf of Aden, planning evacuations in Yemen and Sierra Leone, and disaster relief in the Philippines.
Jon has gained a Ba in Economics, an Ma in Defence Studies and a Diploma in Strategic Management & Leadership, while still enjoying the great outdoors, skiing, mountain biking and running.
_______________________________________________________________________
June 13th Geoffrey Pettinger Are we ready for the Electric Car?
Geoff grew up in Exeter. On leaving Exeter School in 1958 he joined the Atomic Energy Authority who sent him to Durham to obtain a degree in Chemical Engineering. He then went to British Petroleum to work on fuel cells. Geoff moved to the USA in 1966 to work on Aerospace projects before moving into nuclear power construction with Bechtel. He returned to the UK In 1978 and after 3 years research and teaching at Exeter University joined Devon County Council as their Energy Manager. He retired from DCC in 2005.
Geoff has had a life long interest in Energy use and production and hopes to convince members of the advantage of an electric future.
_______________________________________________________________________
June 20th Dr. Mike Haywood The Voyage of the Mayflower,
the Myth and the Reality
We all know a little about the Mayflower and its passengers but what’s the real story and how much is myth? The facts are much more interesting than most people imagine. Why did they sail from Plymouth? Were they the first settlers in North America? Why did they name their settlement Plymouth? They endured huge storms, were almost shipwrecked and even had a birth at sea. And they would not have survived without the help of the Native Indians.
Mike Haywood has a growing International reputation as a marine and portrait painter. He has a Doctorate in Oceanography and loves painting rough or lively seas.
Each of his paintings is painstakingly researched to ensure accuracy.
Full details of Mike's work can be seen on his web site at :
http://www.mikehaywoodart.co.uk/index.html
_______________________________________________________________________
June 27th Linda Middleton Jones Brexit, Chess or Chinese Chequers ?
Linda has over 25 years’ experience in international commerce across manufacturing, nuclear and aviation sectors from her base in South West England. A graduate of law from the University of Plymouth and Universidad de Barcelona, Linda is the Managing Director of International Trade Matters Ltd, a local independent International consultancy; represents the Institute of Export in the South West, and is a Director at Devon Chamber of Commerce. She is a regular speaker and judge on international matters and awards.
Linda currently represents the economic interests of South West Companies globally and has promoted specific sector developments in Europe, Russia, the Mediterranean and Central America. For many years she was the first point of contact for 1000+ local South West companies providing international business support, export awareness and regulatory advice. She has organised, led and participated in successful missions and welcomed delegations to the South West, facilitating introductions and networking opportunities. Her expertise has allowed her to guide clients on exporting strategy including market research, smart procurement and contract compliance. Adept at recognising and guiding sustainable international growth she offers business development expertise from market research through to pipeline sales forecasting. Through her time working with the manufacturing sector she brings a personal commitment to continual improvement through lean tools and techniques.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 4th Patrick Phelvin The Decline of the Printed Word and the Rise of
Digital Communication
Patrick is the Head of Communications to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon & Cornwall Police.
Over the past 20 years Patrick has enjoyed a varied career, from working as a trainee reporter at the Express & Echo before heading off to Dubai and London to work on business trade magazines and the Daily Telegraph respectively.
Patrick returned to the regional press a decade ago (when the first child came along!) becoming the editor of the Tiverton Gazette and then the Express & Echo. He launched Devon Live a year ago, growing the site from 0 page views to 10 million a month in the first 12 months.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 11th Marilyn Bishop The Life of Beryl Cook
Before becoming such a successful artist Beryl Cook, born in 1926 in Surrey, had a wide variety of jobs including being a showgirl in a touring production of "The Gypsy Princess" and working in the fashion industry, which inspired her life-long interest in the way people dress and how they look. This is evident in her paintings of which she said ' I don't know how my pictures happen, they just do. They exist, but for the life of me I can't explain them.' . After moving to Plymouth in 1963, where she and her husband ran a busy theatrical boarding house, she began to paint in earnest, with her first exhibition in 1975 and her first London exhibition in 1976. She recorded human frailties and the absurdities of human behaviour in detailed scenes of everyday life, much as Hogarth did in the 18th Century .
Marilyn was a Senior Lecturer in Plymouth. She worked as a Dartmoor Guide for many years, a Victim Support Counsellor for 10 years and has continued working with Cancer Research, Clic Sergeant and charities helping the needy of Ugandan, while at the same time finding time to paint, many of her paintings being available as prints in the form of cards.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 18th Tony Venning The Life and Loves of Samuel Pepys
Cultured, intellectually curious and unashamedly hedonistic, Samuel Pepys is justly famous as the author of the world's greatest diary (also as being something of a lothario - albeit a rather timorous one!). Throughout his life he had an uncanny knack of being present at the very times and places where history was being made, from lnterregnum, Restoration and the Glorious Revolution. Through sheer hard work, commitment and personal charm, this remarkable man rose from humble beginnings to become Head of the Admiralty and a personal confidant to Charles ll and James ll, and who numbered amongst his friends the greatest intellects of his day.
Tony is a member of the Samuel Pepys Club which was formed in 1903, and which has an eclectic membership drawn from all walks of life and backgrounds, sharing a common interest in matters Pepysian. Full details about the Club can be seen on their web site at http://pepys-club.org.uk/about-the-club/ .
Tony was born in Exeter and now lives in East Budleigh, after retiring as Head of Building and Engineering at Penwith District Council. He is an active member of the East Budleigh community, working as a volunteer in the Community Shop and with the South Devon Heritage Steam Railway.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 25th Dr. Jeremy Walton Preparing a Weather Forecast
Jeremy is the lead computational scientist for the UK Earth System Model (UKESM). This includes management of the software engineers who are working on the development of the model and its infrastructure, with a particular focus on the optimisation of the model to ensure that it runs efficiently.
A major application of UKESM will be the next round of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project , which aims for a better understanding of climate change in a multi-model context. UKESM and other climate models will be used to run the same set of experiments, and comparison between their results will be used to assess their performance and quantify the spread amongst future projections.
Jeremy joined the NERC-Met Office UKESM core group in 2014 as Scientific Systems Manager. Prior to that, he was the scientific software engineer in the UM Collaboration team. Before joining the Met Office in 2013, he worked as a senior technical consultant at the Numerical Algorithms Group, and as a software developer for BP Research. He holds a B.Sc. Hons (1st Class) in Chemistry from Imperial College London (1980), and a D.Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Oxford (1984).
_______________________________________________________________________
August 1st Professor Mark Stoyle Conflict and Calamity : The English Civil War in Exeter, 1642-46
Mark Stoyle grew up in mid-Devon and worked as an archaeologist in Exeter for some time after leaving school. He is currently Professor of early modern History at the University of Southampton.
Mark has written many books and articles, among them major studies of the city walls and underground passages of Exeter. He has appeared on more than 40 TV and radio programmes in the UK and the US and is currently researching the Civil War's effects on the ordinary people of England and Wales. His most recent book is a study of witchcraft in Exeter between 1558 and 1660, and he will be bringing some of his books for sale.
_______________________________________________________________________
August 8th Christopher Massy-Beresford Neutrals at War
Although it was "all over" 73 years ago, much is still being written and presented about the Second World War - mostly from the Allied or Axis standpoints or as it affected those actually involved. What happened in the neutral countries is less well known. This talk examines some different aspects of the war and describes some neutral figures whose altruism was extraordinary and whose achievements were considerable but are in danger of being forgotten.
First Switzerland is considered and how, under the leadership of one man with supreme power delegated to him, the Swiss faced the threat of invasion and occupation for nearly a whole year. Portugal's neutrality is often portrayed as having been peripheral to the main theatres of war. Behind the scenes, however, the negotiations that eventually led to the building of an airbase on the Azores (and thus covering the "Atlantic Gap") were critical. Few people are aware of how close the Americans came to making a major strategic error but for the resolute action of a junior American diplomat. Raw materials shipped from Portugal and, on a much greater scale, from Sweden were decisive in fuelling the German war machine. The role of the Swedes in the war was at first decidedly pro-Axis but, from about 1943, tilted gradually towards the Allies. Sweden's "white buses" operation was unique and the forerunner of the many ways in which the country became generous in helping clear up the mess from 1945 onward. Denmark was the only European country to be both wholly occupied and remain neutral. Its gradual transformation from almost total passivity to a state of near insurrection in the summer of 1944 is illustrated by the story, told almost "at first hand", of an English-born woman who had married into the family that owned Engestofte, a lonely house on Denmark's southernmost island of Lolland.
Christopher's degree was in PPE, but modern languages came to be a defining feature of his commercial career and interests. The last phase of his career was as a professional translator. He lives in Beckington, near Frome in Somerset.
_______________________________________________________________________
August 15th Ben Bradshaw A Week in Westminster
Ben has been the Member of Parliament for Exeter since 1997. He is a member of the Labour Party, and between 2001 and 2010 he served as a Minister in a number of departments including Health, the Foreign Office, Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and from 2009 to 2010 was Secretary of State in the Cabinet for Culture, Media and Sport. From this wide experience of being a backbench MP to being a member of the Cabinet, and having been in both Government and Opposition he will be explaining just how Westminster works, including the many committees through which most of the Government's detailed work is undertaken, and how working in Westminster fits in with the role of an MP in representing and helping all their constituents.
Ben began his working life in Exeter as a reporter on the local newspaper, the Express and Echo. He later moved to BBC Radio Devon in Exeter as a reporter before being posted by the BBC to Berlin as their correspondent there in 1989. There he reported on the momentous events of the Berlin Wall coming down, the collapse of Communism in East Germany and the subsequent re-unification of Germany. He worked on BBC Radio 4's World at One, PM and World This Weekend programmes and won a number of national and international awards for his journalism. He is regularly a guest on the Sunday Politics programme.
Ben speaks German and Italian, and when he has any spare time he likes walking and wild swimming.
_______________________________________________________________________
August 22nd No Meeting
_______________________________________________________________________
August 29th No Meeting
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
April 11th Norman Maudsley Finland in the Raw
Norman is widely travelled. He will be showing a pictorial record of his experiences trekking with huskies above the Arctic Circle, in temperatures as low as -30 deg. Centigrade.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 18th Peter Barker Life in Russia Today
Peter is the Chairperson of the Exeter Yaroslavl Twinning Association which promotes friendship between Exeter and Yaroslavl, Exeter's twin city in Russia.
Peter has been to Russia 10 times, staying as a personal guest in private Russian homes. In return, they have stayed with him in Exeter. Through these visits he has been encouraged to learn the language and has many good Russian friends.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 25th Professor Jeremy Black The World of James Bond
Jeremy has been a Professor of History at the University of Exeter since 1996, working on post 1500 military history, eighteenth-century British history, international relations, cartographic history and newspaper history.
Jeremy has lectured extensively in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the USA . He is and has been on a number of editorial boards including the Journal of Military History, the journal of the Royal United Services Institute, Media History, the International History Review, and History Today and was editor of Archives. He is the author of over 100 books, especially on eighteenth century British politics and international relations. Some of his most recent publications include War and World 1450-2000, The British Seaborne Empire, Maps and History, George III and European Warfare in a Global Context 1660-1815.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 2nd Richard Haigh The History of the Cosa Nostra,
The Sicilian Mafia
One can easily be seduced into identifying with the heightened sense of family, danger, ambition and honour in the portrayal of the Mafia in films and novels. In truth the behaviour of the Mafia is more horrifically brutal and its sense of “honour” more grotesquely distorted than could ever be part of a Hollywood film.
The term “mafia” has come to be used for criminal organisations all over the world but few people have a clear understanding of the origins and development of the Sicilian original, “Cosa Nostra”. This talk attempts to explain how the secret criminal organisation was born at the time of Italian unification and came to be embedded into the very fabric of Italian political and economic life.
Cosa Nostra made billions of dollars from heroin, murdered with impunity, and established links with the Italian political establishment which have stood the test of time.
Richard is a member of the Club Italia of Totnes. He is a retired college principal and an amateur student of Italian history.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 9th Tom Lomas John Lewis, from London to Exeter
Tom grew up in Wiltshire but for the last two years has been based in the John Lewis store in Exeter where he is Department Manager of Fashion. He joined John Lewis at the age of 17 and has been in the business for 10 years, working in 6 shops around the country ( mainly in the South ). In his talk Tom will be outlining the history of the John Lewis Partnership and will be explaining how it is different from other organisations, and their next steps as a business.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 16th AGM
_______________________________________________________________________
May 23rd Dr Simon Miller Historical Thrillers :
Making It Up - Or Telling The Truth?
Simon has a PhD from Durham and taught Mexican and Spanish history at universities in UK and US before turning to writing noir thrillers, being fascinated by 'what-if' questions and tension between fact and fiction.
Simon's book "Ebolowa", published in 2017, is based on a real life case of courage, complicity and murder in French West Africa in the 1950s. This is a work of historical fiction based on a true story but taking careful liberties with the facts, and Simon will be telling the story behind the book and addressing the question of fact versus fiction.
_______________________________________________________________________
May 30th Eileen Dillon Votes for Women ?
Eileen is a National Trust Learning Officer based at Killerton and is the co-curator of the "Votes for Women?" Exhibition at Killerton which forms part of the National Trust’s 2018 Women and Power Programme marking the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, which empowered some women by giving them the right to vote in British parliamentary elections.
Eileen will be speaking about the Exhibition which tells the story of two Killerton women, Gertrude and Eleanor Acland who campaigned on opposite sides during the campaign for women’s suffrage. Gertrude was a founder member of Exeter’s Anti-Suffrage League and hosted an anti-suffrage garden party at Killerton in 1910, whilst her niece, Eleanor, was the Vice-President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in the South West, and later a founder member of the Liberal Women’s Suffrage Union.
Eileen and community actor Louise Prideaux will be performing a 10 min drama linked to the exhibition.
As part of the Votes for Women project, Killerton's costume collection has been relaunched with the theme: ‘Branded: fashion, femininity and the right to vote’, which examines how women’s dress became politicised during the suffrage campaign and how the suffrage campaigners were early proponents of branding to further their cause.
Details of the Exhibition can be seen on the National Trust site at :
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton/features/votes-for-women
_______________________________________________________________________
June 6th Lt Col Jon Coomber Training at Lympstone
As Chief of Staff at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines at Lympstone, Jon is responsible for the delivery of all training and has oversight of the operation of the Centre. Since joining the RM in 1993 Jon has had a wide range of responsibilities including operations in Northern Ireland, several years as a Mountain Leader with deployments to Kosovo and Afghanistan, operations in Sierra Leone, counter piracy operations around the Gulf of Aden, planning evacuations in Yemen and Sierra Leone, and disaster relief in the Philippines.
Jon has gained a Ba in Economics, an Ma in Defence Studies and a Diploma in Strategic Management & Leadership, while still enjoying the great outdoors, skiing, mountain biking and running.
_______________________________________________________________________
June 13th Geoffrey Pettinger Are we ready for the Electric Car?
Geoff grew up in Exeter. On leaving Exeter School in 1958 he joined the Atomic Energy Authority who sent him to Durham to obtain a degree in Chemical Engineering. He then went to British Petroleum to work on fuel cells. Geoff moved to the USA in 1966 to work on Aerospace projects before moving into nuclear power construction with Bechtel. He returned to the UK In 1978 and after 3 years research and teaching at Exeter University joined Devon County Council as their Energy Manager. He retired from DCC in 2005.
Geoff has had a life long interest in Energy use and production and hopes to convince members of the advantage of an electric future.
_______________________________________________________________________
June 20th Dr. Mike Haywood The Voyage of the Mayflower,
the Myth and the Reality
We all know a little about the Mayflower and its passengers but what’s the real story and how much is myth? The facts are much more interesting than most people imagine. Why did they sail from Plymouth? Were they the first settlers in North America? Why did they name their settlement Plymouth? They endured huge storms, were almost shipwrecked and even had a birth at sea. And they would not have survived without the help of the Native Indians.
Mike Haywood has a growing International reputation as a marine and portrait painter. He has a Doctorate in Oceanography and loves painting rough or lively seas.
Each of his paintings is painstakingly researched to ensure accuracy.
Full details of Mike's work can be seen on his web site at :
http://www.mikehaywoodart.co.uk/index.html
_______________________________________________________________________
June 27th Linda Middleton Jones Brexit, Chess or Chinese Chequers ?
Linda has over 25 years’ experience in international commerce across manufacturing, nuclear and aviation sectors from her base in South West England. A graduate of law from the University of Plymouth and Universidad de Barcelona, Linda is the Managing Director of International Trade Matters Ltd, a local independent International consultancy; represents the Institute of Export in the South West, and is a Director at Devon Chamber of Commerce. She is a regular speaker and judge on international matters and awards.
Linda currently represents the economic interests of South West Companies globally and has promoted specific sector developments in Europe, Russia, the Mediterranean and Central America. For many years she was the first point of contact for 1000+ local South West companies providing international business support, export awareness and regulatory advice. She has organised, led and participated in successful missions and welcomed delegations to the South West, facilitating introductions and networking opportunities. Her expertise has allowed her to guide clients on exporting strategy including market research, smart procurement and contract compliance. Adept at recognising and guiding sustainable international growth she offers business development expertise from market research through to pipeline sales forecasting. Through her time working with the manufacturing sector she brings a personal commitment to continual improvement through lean tools and techniques.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 4th Patrick Phelvin The Decline of the Printed Word and the Rise of
Digital Communication
Patrick is the Head of Communications to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon & Cornwall Police.
Over the past 20 years Patrick has enjoyed a varied career, from working as a trainee reporter at the Express & Echo before heading off to Dubai and London to work on business trade magazines and the Daily Telegraph respectively.
Patrick returned to the regional press a decade ago (when the first child came along!) becoming the editor of the Tiverton Gazette and then the Express & Echo. He launched Devon Live a year ago, growing the site from 0 page views to 10 million a month in the first 12 months.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 11th Marilyn Bishop The Life of Beryl Cook
Before becoming such a successful artist Beryl Cook, born in 1926 in Surrey, had a wide variety of jobs including being a showgirl in a touring production of "The Gypsy Princess" and working in the fashion industry, which inspired her life-long interest in the way people dress and how they look. This is evident in her paintings of which she said ' I don't know how my pictures happen, they just do. They exist, but for the life of me I can't explain them.' . After moving to Plymouth in 1963, where she and her husband ran a busy theatrical boarding house, she began to paint in earnest, with her first exhibition in 1975 and her first London exhibition in 1976. She recorded human frailties and the absurdities of human behaviour in detailed scenes of everyday life, much as Hogarth did in the 18th Century .
Marilyn was a Senior Lecturer in Plymouth. She worked as a Dartmoor Guide for many years, a Victim Support Counsellor for 10 years and has continued working with Cancer Research, Clic Sergeant and charities helping the needy of Ugandan, while at the same time finding time to paint, many of her paintings being available as prints in the form of cards.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 18th Tony Venning The Life and Loves of Samuel Pepys
Cultured, intellectually curious and unashamedly hedonistic, Samuel Pepys is justly famous as the author of the world's greatest diary (also as being something of a lothario - albeit a rather timorous one!). Throughout his life he had an uncanny knack of being present at the very times and places where history was being made, from lnterregnum, Restoration and the Glorious Revolution. Through sheer hard work, commitment and personal charm, this remarkable man rose from humble beginnings to become Head of the Admiralty and a personal confidant to Charles ll and James ll, and who numbered amongst his friends the greatest intellects of his day.
Tony is a member of the Samuel Pepys Club which was formed in 1903, and which has an eclectic membership drawn from all walks of life and backgrounds, sharing a common interest in matters Pepysian. Full details about the Club can be seen on their web site at http://pepys-club.org.uk/about-the-club/ .
Tony was born in Exeter and now lives in East Budleigh, after retiring as Head of Building and Engineering at Penwith District Council. He is an active member of the East Budleigh community, working as a volunteer in the Community Shop and with the South Devon Heritage Steam Railway.
_______________________________________________________________________
July 25th Dr. Jeremy Walton Preparing a Weather Forecast
Jeremy is the lead computational scientist for the UK Earth System Model (UKESM). This includes management of the software engineers who are working on the development of the model and its infrastructure, with a particular focus on the optimisation of the model to ensure that it runs efficiently.
A major application of UKESM will be the next round of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project , which aims for a better understanding of climate change in a multi-model context. UKESM and other climate models will be used to run the same set of experiments, and comparison between their results will be used to assess their performance and quantify the spread amongst future projections.
Jeremy joined the NERC-Met Office UKESM core group in 2014 as Scientific Systems Manager. Prior to that, he was the scientific software engineer in the UM Collaboration team. Before joining the Met Office in 2013, he worked as a senior technical consultant at the Numerical Algorithms Group, and as a software developer for BP Research. He holds a B.Sc. Hons (1st Class) in Chemistry from Imperial College London (1980), and a D.Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Oxford (1984).
_______________________________________________________________________
August 1st Professor Mark Stoyle Conflict and Calamity : The English Civil War in Exeter, 1642-46
Mark Stoyle grew up in mid-Devon and worked as an archaeologist in Exeter for some time after leaving school. He is currently Professor of early modern History at the University of Southampton.
Mark has written many books and articles, among them major studies of the city walls and underground passages of Exeter. He has appeared on more than 40 TV and radio programmes in the UK and the US and is currently researching the Civil War's effects on the ordinary people of England and Wales. His most recent book is a study of witchcraft in Exeter between 1558 and 1660, and he will be bringing some of his books for sale.
_______________________________________________________________________
August 8th Christopher Massy-Beresford Neutrals at War
Although it was "all over" 73 years ago, much is still being written and presented about the Second World War - mostly from the Allied or Axis standpoints or as it affected those actually involved. What happened in the neutral countries is less well known. This talk examines some different aspects of the war and describes some neutral figures whose altruism was extraordinary and whose achievements were considerable but are in danger of being forgotten.
First Switzerland is considered and how, under the leadership of one man with supreme power delegated to him, the Swiss faced the threat of invasion and occupation for nearly a whole year. Portugal's neutrality is often portrayed as having been peripheral to the main theatres of war. Behind the scenes, however, the negotiations that eventually led to the building of an airbase on the Azores (and thus covering the "Atlantic Gap") were critical. Few people are aware of how close the Americans came to making a major strategic error but for the resolute action of a junior American diplomat. Raw materials shipped from Portugal and, on a much greater scale, from Sweden were decisive in fuelling the German war machine. The role of the Swedes in the war was at first decidedly pro-Axis but, from about 1943, tilted gradually towards the Allies. Sweden's "white buses" operation was unique and the forerunner of the many ways in which the country became generous in helping clear up the mess from 1945 onward. Denmark was the only European country to be both wholly occupied and remain neutral. Its gradual transformation from almost total passivity to a state of near insurrection in the summer of 1944 is illustrated by the story, told almost "at first hand", of an English-born woman who had married into the family that owned Engestofte, a lonely house on Denmark's southernmost island of Lolland.
Christopher's degree was in PPE, but modern languages came to be a defining feature of his commercial career and interests. The last phase of his career was as a professional translator. He lives in Beckington, near Frome in Somerset.
_______________________________________________________________________
August 15th Ben Bradshaw A Week in Westminster
Ben has been the Member of Parliament for Exeter since 1997. He is a member of the Labour Party, and between 2001 and 2010 he served as a Minister in a number of departments including Health, the Foreign Office, Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and from 2009 to 2010 was Secretary of State in the Cabinet for Culture, Media and Sport. From this wide experience of being a backbench MP to being a member of the Cabinet, and having been in both Government and Opposition he will be explaining just how Westminster works, including the many committees through which most of the Government's detailed work is undertaken, and how working in Westminster fits in with the role of an MP in representing and helping all their constituents.
Ben began his working life in Exeter as a reporter on the local newspaper, the Express and Echo. He later moved to BBC Radio Devon in Exeter as a reporter before being posted by the BBC to Berlin as their correspondent there in 1989. There he reported on the momentous events of the Berlin Wall coming down, the collapse of Communism in East Germany and the subsequent re-unification of Germany. He worked on BBC Radio 4's World at One, PM and World This Weekend programmes and won a number of national and international awards for his journalism. He is regularly a guest on the Sunday Politics programme.
Ben speaks German and Italian, and when he has any spare time he likes walking and wild swimming.
_______________________________________________________________________
August 22nd No Meeting
_______________________________________________________________________
August 29th No Meeting
_______________________________________________________________________