Monthly Archives: March 2019

Our Lives–Our Times 1945–64

On the 27th of March the Forum welcomed as guest speaker David Davies whose talk was titled Our Lives–Our Times 1945–64.

Illustrated by an interesting selection of photographs, the talk covered politics and life in general in the UK for the period mentioned in the title.

David commenced with the conferences at the end of WW11 when the participants changed due to death and the British general election, the only constant being Joseph Stalin.  This resulted in the Soviet domination of Central Europe for many years afterwards.

At this time the UK was virtually bankrupt, rationing continuing till 1954 and bomb damage remaining into the late 1950s.  In 1947 there, was freezing weather which resulted in 25,000 deaths. Smog was a regular occurrence, in 1952 it resulted in 4,000 deaths in London and in 1953 North Sea flooding caused many casualties.

David mentioned celebrities from the period and some notable events such as the Coronation, the breaking of the sound barrier and the ascent of Everest.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked David Davies for a very interesting and informative talk.

James Heriot

On the 13th of March the Forum held its annual open meeting when members may invite guests to enjoy the guest speaker.

This year the featured speaker was Jim Wight, the son of James Heriot who wrote the books detailing his life as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales. Heriot’s real name was Alfred Wight and his vet’s practice was situated in Thirsk and Jim explained that his father changed his name and location to try and preserve his anonymity.

However, he sold over 100 million copies of his books and Thirsk’s James Heriot Museum has become a major tourist destination, particularly for American visitors.

Jim followed his father to become a vet in Thirsk and his talk featured a number of amusing stories involving his dealings with the local farming community.

One of the main characters in the James Heriot books was his business partner Siegfried Farnon, whose name was actually Donald Sinclair, and Jim ended his talk with a few tales about this unique person.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Jim Wight for a highly entertaining morning and Forum members and their guests joined in enthusiastic applause.

Jim Wight donates all his speaker’s fees to charity.

Ireland

On the 6th of March the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Tony Burkitt whose chosen subject was Ireland.  

Tony’s interests are archaeology, architecture, history, wild flowers and walking, each of which was covered as we enjoyed a travelogue around southern Ireland starting and finishing in Dublin and visiting tourist hot-spots such as Kerry, Connemara, the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher.  

He illustrated his talk with a series of slides which showed the wild rugged Irish landscape and its wide variety of ancient Celtic and early Christian sites.

Whilst in Ireland Tony attempted to climb each of the 12 peaks which rise above 3,000 feet but he failed due to inclement weather and access problems.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Tony for an enjoyable talk.  

Forum members look forward to the meeting scheduled for the 13th of March when we welcome Jim Wight, the vet son of TV vet James Heriot, who is to talk about his father. This is an open meeting when members invite guests to share the meeting.