Our annual event / open day was held at Harrisons Club on November 16th. Other Societies joined us and Gavin Williamson, M.P. formally opened the event. The Society Vice-Chairman Pam Ball said ‘we wanted to adapt the usual format and the response from the attendees has been excellent. Everyone contributed including our friends from neighbouring Societies, the Harrisons support team and, last but not least, our team of volunteers. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. We hope to further develop our themes for next year’s event and we are particularly looking for feedback from the members as to their views of what we should include’.
Gary took photos during the day and extracts are printed above.
The ‘Unknown Soldier’ picture and article in the Chronicle produced immediate answers from, at least, two separate sources. Both cited brothers i.e. Jack and Tom Wootton. Their features are very similar and a final degree of clarity will be sought in the near future. At that point, it is hoped that Diane will inform the Chronicle so they can consider including the details in a future article.
A potential visit to the Houses of Parliament is being checked out. It follows an invitation from Gavin Williamson. The likely time-frame for the visit is May 2014 and the Society has been entered into a ballot for tickets to be drawn at the Palace of Westminster in the coming weeks. Our Chairman, Gary Smith, has started an initial list of members who are potentially interested in the visit. At this stage, there is no commitment to any party. Members are asked to contact Gary if they wish to be added to the list and further details will be provided at the earliest opportunity.
The Society has a display stand at the Wyrley Juniors Xmas Fayre to be held at their Long Lane venue on December 7th. It is hoped that it will effect an introduction to the Society from new audiences and members are asked to support the event, if at all possible.
A thoroughly interesting and absorbing address was given by Andy Parsons at the Coffee Morning. The subject was ‘Uncle Toms Diary’ and spoke of Tom’s Great War participation. It was interspersed with actual extracts from the diary and demonstrated a number of personal heirlooms. A cross-section of the contents is displayed below.
The family has written an account of Uncle Toms diary and will be updating it during the period leading to the commemoration of the Great War in 2014.
Ron Myatt
November 2013