The Probus Club of East Grinstead & District
The Club meets on the third Tuesday of each month except December when it is the second Tuesday. The venue for meetings is the upstairs room at the East Grinstead Spoprts Club, Saint Hill Road, East Grinstead RH19 4JU, where members gather at 10.00am for conversation and coffee, conduct routine Club business, listen to a guest speaker and questions. At around midday members can opt to return to the bar for a drink and lunch.
A programme of visits to varied and fascinating places are arranged during the year. The Club organises a short holiday each year, usually in the UK but also to mainland Europe. All holidays aim to have a sense of fun, to visit new places of interest and represent a tremendous opportunity for members and partners to socialise over a longer period of around severn days.. Travel is normally by coach, but train and air transport have been used in the past. Holidays are planned such that people with restricted mobility can participate as much as possible.
A Spring and Autumn lunch takes place with members and wives / partners and at Christmas time a lunch takes place to celebrate the season and recall the year's achievements.
Our Probus member John Hazeldean was part of the investigation team into the cause of the massive explosion and fire that burnt for 5days. John discusses his experiences in examining the aftermath.
The talk will describe the history of the Channel Tunnel through the 18th & 19th centuries
Featuring the proposals that were put forward over this period, up to the final decision to build a tunnel. It will describe the main design features of the tunnel, the problems and issues encountered, the build process of the tunnels and cross passages, the ventilation and cooling systems and the dynamics of running a fast train through a narrow tunnel. I will describe the communications system and my personal role in the project. It will end with some fun events that occurred once the tunnel was open.
This talk takes a light-hearted look at the history of sporting events in Sussex
Sport has been a key feature of Sussex life throughout the centuries, with cricket, football and horse racing being commonplace events, as well as the much-loved Sussex game of stoolball. However, local village sports days were also host to many lesser-known sporting activities. These included jingling matches, menagerie races and piano bashing. I will regale the audience with tales of all these events, and more, in an entertaining and informative talk, full of wonderful photographs.
A talk about the history of Superguns and Gerald Bull, the designer of the ultimate Supergun for Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
I spent some time in the arms industry and became unwittingly involved in the Supergun project. This eventually led to me giving evidence to the Government enquiry into ‘Arms to Iraq’, as well as several other enquiries including ‘Arms exports to Iran’. During this interesting period in my career I worked closely with Jonathan Aitkin, the disgraced MP and Minister, and gained unwelcome first-hand knowledge of the intrusive power of the UK press.
I describe what it was like starting out as a young reporter in troubled Johannesburg and Durban during apartheid in the Seventies and Eighties and how that experience forged my skills and still informs what I do today.
I take you through the highlights of my career: the dangers of being a frontline reporter; walking around the pits at Formula One Grand Prix and rubbing shoulders with Ayrton Senna and Nikki Lauda; drinking tequilas with Freddie Mercury; interviewing Roald Dahl when he had just written Mathilda; meeting senators and Monika Lewinsky in Washington; the vast number of "ordinary" people I have encountered doing extraordinary things.
I will also talk to you about how technology has completely transformed newspaper production, for better or worse, and my feelings now, as I look back over nearly 45 years.
Between 1918 and 1930 Major George Herbert Scott CBE, AFC was the pre-eminent airship pilot and engineer of his generation
After commanding the first two-way transatlantic airship flight in HMA R34 he went on to become Assistant Director of Airship Development (Flying and Training). He designed the mooring masts for the R100 and R101 and was appointed Officer in Charge of what was to become the last flight of the R101, which sounded the death knell for the crew, the passengers and the airship industry.
Click here: The R101 on the day of launch
Click here:The R101 on the mooring mast at Cardington and many more shots
Scott displayed a tendency to ‘press on’ in the face of adversity and lead from the front, however was it bad planning or political imperatives that led to that final journey of no return?
