4th June 2026

Eight decades after the end of World War II, there can be very few people still alive today who took an active part in the events of that conflict. Therefore, it falls to the descendants of these wartime veterans to ensure that their stories continue to be told. Such was the case at this meeting when club member Derrick Willmot spoke about the experiences of his own father, Jack, who was probably typical of an ordinary soldier at the time.

With his roots in rural Derbyshire, Jack was born in 1919 and, on leaving school, he studied building construction and architecture at Chesterfield Technical College. On finishing his studies, he was employed as an Architectural Assistant from August 1939 until conscription to the Royal Engineers in January 1940. After an initial period of training, he was assigned to 161 RCC (Railway Construction Company) and ordered to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in April 1940. The main task of the RCCs was to build, maintain and repair railway tracks, and Jack’s unit was based initially near to Rouen. However, within a matter of a few weeks, the German army had swept through the Low Countries into France with the effect that the main part of the BEF had to be hurriedly evacuated from Dunkirk at the end of May 1940. Now under threat themselves, 161 RCC were forced to retreat through Britanny to the port of Brest, from where they were evacuated back to England in mid-June 1940.

This was by no means the end of Jack’s involvement in the war because, as the speaker then related, after various postings around the UK, Jack was assigned to the War Office Transportation department in London. Here, making use of his architectural background, he worked as a draughtsman on the highly secret drawings for the Mulberry Harbour which was to be an essential element of the D Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Comprising floating but sinkable breakwaters, floating pontoons, piers and floating roadways, this innovative and technically difficult system was designed to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion.

After the end of the war, Jack returned to civilian life in 1946. Like many who served with him, he was a modest man, who detested war and military life but revelled in our “free country”. We owe him and all his military colleagues our deepest gratitude for their efforts and sacrifices.

Derrick Willmot and Paul Davies

21st May 2026

It is widely held that the first duty of government is the defence of the realm. Fortunately, for many years, this obligation has not been severely tested, and successive British governments of all political parties have taken advantage of a perceived less dangerous world following the collapse of the USSR and the liberation of the Eastern European states. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the subsequent turmoil erupting in the Middle East have served to demonstrate the instability and dangers that can arise with little warning. Such events demand a reappraisal of a country’s defence capability which, in the case of the UK, was the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) carried out in 2025.

At this meeting, club member Ron Enock gave a talk which demonstrated how the SDR had identified the gulf between the country’s current defence capability and its needs. The comparison was alarming. By examining the three branches of the armed forces – Royal Navy, Army, and RAF – Ron showed that, throughout, there are shortages of equipment, weaponry and personnel, and that much of the equipment is becoming life-expired with replacements only slowly being delivered. And, of course, there is the problem of sourcing Government funding to rectify the situation.


Having shown how ill-prepared we are to defend ourselves militarily, the speaker turned to the state of the country’s infrastructure and essential communications. The UK has around sixty major underwater communications cables, all of which are vitally important in today’s digitally connected world. But the threat of sabotage to these cables is increasingly becoming a vulnerability because of our inter-dependence on connectivity with other nations and the world wide web. The UK gas grid is similarly vulnerable. Limited gas storage and insufficient supply solely from our own North Sea resources make the delivery of liquified natural gas essential every three or four days. We have just five days storage across four locations to meet summer peak demand, reducing to two and a half days in winter. It is not difficult to envisage how easy it would be to cause major disruption to this critical system.

Clearly, in this country – and, indeed, in many others – we have been living for too long in a fool’s paradise of complacency. Let us hope that it is not too late to rectify the situation.

Ron Enock and Paul Davies

7th May 2026

Although there are occasions when the ambulance service in this country is put under considerable pressure to the extent that it struggles to cope with demand, it usually performs with admirable efficiency. Even so, it cannot respond to every call for assistance with the same speed as for the more urgent emergencies. It is in this type of situation that support is given by members of a local First Responder team, one of whom, Dr Steve Trowbridge, was the guest speaker at this meeting.

Steve is the group coordinator of the Hartington First Responders, a team of five volunteers that was formed in 2024 and became operational in the following year after a period of intensive training. He explained that First Responders are despatched to incidents by the East Midlands Ambulance Service Emergency Operations Centre after a 999 or 111 call has been received. Being based in an area which, as in the case of Hartington, is mainly rural, First Responders with local knowledge can be on the scene sooner than an ambulance. Despatched from home, they use their own vehicles and carry much the same type of life-saving and support equipment as provided in an ambulance.

As noted above, First Responders are all volunteers, and they are obliged to buy their own uniforms and equipment which can cost £3,500. Apart from the rigorous initial training, they must undertake regular training and assessment updates, and they are required to be ‘on duty’ for a specified number of hours per month. This is truly a serious commitment to public service!

To illustrate the sort of incidents to which his (and other) teams respond, the speaker gave a number of examples. These are generally serious and life-threatening conditions such as unconscious or collapsed patients, chest pains, diabetic emergencies or trauma.

Clearly, we the general public benefit greatly from the work of this body of volunteers and it is surely incumbent upon us to give them our support, both moral and financial, whenever possible.

Paul Davies and Steve Trowbridge

16th April 2026

It is surely a sad reflection on life in Britain today that many of the poorer members of society are forced, by circumstances not of their own making, to rely on food banks for their basic needs. The speaker at this meeting was member, John Roberts who, as Vice Chair of Chesterfield Food Bank, is very much involved in the subject of soup kitchens and food banks, especially in Chesterfield. Here, his role is to oversee that they are compliant with current regulations in food hygiene and health & safety matters.

John spoke about the history of support for the poor and needy. This first came into being in the early Egyptian and Roman times but, in Britain, it was not until the beginning of the seventeenth century that legislation was enacted specifically to cater for the poor in society. The Elizabethan Poor Law Act of 1601 established three principles: local responsibility for the poor, the requirement that people provide support to their poor and the idea that towns were liable only for their own residents. Two centuries later, workhouses were set up across the country following the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act which aimed to reform the existing system of poor relief. This act mandated that individuals and families seeking relief must enter these establishments where they would be provided with lodging and food in exchange for labour. Conditions were usually very grim, and many will be familiar with  Charles Dickens’ depiction of Oliver Twist in a workhouse. (On a more personal note, the speaker said that his own grandmother was living in a workhouse in Norfolk where his mother was born.)

He continued his talk by discussing the development of soup kitchens and food banks. In response to the effects on the poor during World War I, a number of National Kitchens were set up, the first of which was opened in May 1917 by Queen Mary in London. The following year, 363 National Kitchens had been established, partly funded by the state but mainly staffed by volunteers. These days, there are many organisations supporting the work of food banks such as the Trussell Trust which was set up in 2000 as the result of a legacy. Currently there are more than 1,400 foodbanks but it should be noted that they offer more than free food by providing compassion to everyone facing hardship and guiding people to access additional support and welfare services.

It is thanks to people like John who volunteer their own time along with others to help those who are less fortunate than many of us.

Paul Davies and John Roberts

2nd April 2026

The regard in which members of our royal family and other notable public figures have been held over the centuries has fluctuated between the extremes of unwavering admiration and utter contempt, with complete indifference occupying the middle ground. However, it was in the early part of the eighteenth century, with the introduction of the first of a long line of monarchs of German origin (starting with George I and continuing to this day) that a form of visual comment, the cartoon, came into prominence as a way of depicting the character and foibles of these personages.

At today’s talk, illustrated with many examples of the cartoonists’ art, we were hugely entertained by club member, Peter Stubbs, who had researched not only the original 18^th century cartoonists but also those who have followed the tradition into the current 21^st century. One of the earliest of these cartoonists was James Gillray, known as the father of the political cartoon. His work famously caricatured the generally unpopular Hanoverian kings George III and IV, and William IV, who were variously miserly, gluttonous, or otherwise decadent. The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) provided a rich source of material for the cartoonists of the time, many of them lampooning Napoleon himself but also depicting his British adversaries such as Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

Peter continued by discussing the political cartoons of later years – the Victorian era, with its many societal changes, and then the events of the twentieth century, chiefly the two World Wars. He showed many examples of cartoons which have appeared in publications as diverse as the much-lamented Punch magazine, Private Eye, and of course, The Times newspaper, whose brilliantly insightful cartoonist, Peter Brookes, is a master of his art.

As to the future, with the relentless decline in newspaper and magazine readership, the main stage for the political cartoon is likely to be the Internet. It is to be sincerely hoped that, in an ever more restricted and litigious world there will be freedom for cartoonists to continue the long-established tradition of visual comment on political and similar events.

Peter Stubbs and Paul Davies

19th March 2026

It is now over two hundred years since the Napoleonic Wars raged across much of Europe but, remarkably, a collection of artefacts associated with one of the campaigns of that conflict has survived for all that time in the custody of one of our local families. At this meeting, club member Hugh Wright brought several examples of these artefacts. They had been handed down through generations of his family since the days when one of his ancestors, William Henry Wright, had fought against Napoleon’s army in the Peninsular War of 1808-1814. This particular phase of the wars in Europe took place in Portugal and Spain, with the British army supported by troops from those two countries.

Hugh described how his ancestor had joined the 4^th Dragoons (a cavalry regiment) at the age of 18 in 1801 and progressed through the ranks until, by now a Captain, he embarked for Portugal in 1809. He then served throughout the Peninsular War under the Duke of Wellington until returning to England in 1814. During this time, Captain Wright was involved in several of the battles fought across Spain with the object of driving out the French invaders. Probably the most notable of these was the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812 in which the British and their allies inflicted a heavy defeat on their French adversaries.

During his talk, the speaker described his inherited collection which included a ceremonial helmet, belt, spurs, and war medals (one of which, a commemorative ‘clasp’, is being held by Hugh in the accompanying photograph). In the future, Hugh’s family members intend to offer these artefacts to a museum where they hope that they will be displayed for the enjoyment of the general public.

Hugh Wright and Paul Davies

5th March 2026

As in so many other aspects of life, the popularity of classical music composers can change remarkably quickly, such as that of Sir William Sterndale Bennett who was the subject of this  talk by club member Kim Rainsford. In his day, Bennett was highly regarded by his Victorian contemporaries but, since the early years of the 20^th century, his music has fallen somewhat out of favour with the public, although the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians has described him as ‘A most distinguished English composer of the Romantic School’.

Kim started his talk by giving an outline of Bennett’s history. He was born into a musical family in Sheffield in 1816 but tragically, at the age of three, had lost both parents within two years of each other. Now orphaned, he was brought up in Cambridge by his paternal grandfather, John Bennett, a lay clerk to the choirs of King’s, St John’s and Trinity Colleges in that city. Having developed a remarkable musical talent, William, aged only ten, was accepted into the Royal Academy of Music where he remained a pupil for the next decade, learning to play the violin and piano. At the Academy, he also embarked on his career of musical composition for which, in time, he became greatly admired by other musicians of the day, including the celebrated Felix Mendelssohn.

In 1836, Bennett undertook the first of several visits to Germany where he and Mendelssohn collaborated musically and were members of a circle of friends that included another notable composer, Robert Schumann. At home in England, Bennett’s status was recognized by appointments as the Director of the Philharmonic Society of London in 1842, the Founding Director of Queen’s College London (1848), and Professor of Music at Cambridge (1856). He died in 1875 aged 59 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

The speaker described the extent and variety of Bennett’s musical compositions of which there were a total of some 130, comprising choral and chamber music, symphonies, and works for piano. For all this prodigious output, Bennett has become a largely forgotten composer although, in 2016, to mark the bicentenary of his birth he was featured as ‘Composer of the Week’ on BBC Radio 3.

Paul Davies and Kim Rainsford

19th February 2026

Most of our speakers are members of the club itself, but, on occasion, a guest is invited to talk on a special topic. One such was this meeting, when the speaker was Robert Thornhill of Great Longstone, the current head of a long-established farming family in the village.

Robert described how his farming grandfather in 1912 had decided to concentrate on poultry production. Over the following few years, he had expanded his operations such that his flock reached ten thousand laying hens producing free-range eggs. In order to handle these quantities, he set up an egg-packing station, which was the first of its kind in Derbyshire. (An example of the sort of wooden boxes in which these eggs were sent to market is shown in the accompanying photograph). In time, the business turned to the production of poultry meat, which was a premium product, far more expensive than beef in the years before World War II. By the 1970s, Thornhill’s chicken processing factory in Great Longstone employed 450 people. In the meantime, Robert’s father (Peter) and uncle who, by then were running the business in partnership, decide to diversify, with Peter concentrating on cattle rearing from the 1950s.

After studying farming techniques in several countries, Robert joined his father in the family business. By crossbreeding Holstein Friesian with Jersey cattle, imported from New Zealand, they created a grass-fed herd of dairy cattle which produced milk of enhanced quality with a high fat content. Now in charge of the farm, Robert has a herd of 250 cows which he grazes on sections of his land in rotation, thus allowing the maximum growth of grass with the least damage to the ground. He described how he uses technology to monitor the growth of the farm’s pastures and the health of his animals. Along with his usual day-by-day farming activities, he is also clearly focussed on environmental matters, such as tree-planting and the restoration of the historic dewponds which are a feature of this limestone area.

It was clear to his audience that here was a farmer whose attitude and actions are worthy of far more appreciation by government and the public in general than is usually afforded them, and that they should be encouraged and supported.

Robert Thornhill and Paul Davies

5th February 2026

As though on cue – but, in fact, by a remarkable coincidence – news of the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was announced on the day before this meeting to hear a talk by member, Tony Byrne, on his experiences of working in Libya during the 1970s when that country was under the firm grip of Gaddafi (senior).

The speaker opened his talk with a description of the geography and history of this North African state. It is the fourth largest country in Africa but, most of it is desert which means that the majority of its 7½ million population lives in the relatively fertile Mediterranean coastal strip. For many centuries a province of other Mediterranean powers such as the Romans, followed by the Ottomans and then the Italians, Libya gained independence as a kingdom in 1951. Eighteen years later, a bloodless coup led by Muammar Gaddafi deposed the king and established a republic which, in time, became repressive and the sponsor of international terrorism.

It was during the early years of Gaddafi’s time in power that Tony, at times accompanied by his wife and two small children, lived and worked in Libya. His first major civil engineering project was as part of a team to design a pipeline scheme, 300 km long, from an underground water source in the desert to the coastal city of Agedabia. This involved learning to survive in the hostile desert conditions of heat and frequent sandstorms. Following a preliminary design, the actual construction phase of the planned pipeline was postponed for many years when it was superseded by a far more ambitious scheme of supplying ground water to the whole coastal area.

Having finished work on the pipeline scheme, Tony was placed in overall charge of his employer’s Libyan engineering operations. Now based in Tripoli, it was possible for him to be joined by his family, and they spent the next five years living in the city. However, Libya proved to be quite restrictive in many ways and, with the children’s continuing education to be considered, the family moved back to England. That was in 1980. Since that time, Tony has never returned to the country which, as we know, has torn itself apart with civil war.

Tony Byrne and Tony Fry

15th January 2026

Throughout most of human history the loudest noises to which we were subjected would have been those of the natural world, such as a thunderclap or a barking dog, but none of these would have been a continuous source of sound for a long period of time. However, with the development of sound amplification systems it has become a far noisier world of sustained high-volume sound, one in which it is very easy for damage to be caused to our delicate hearing organs, the ears. Problems with sound systems and their effectiveness were the subject of this talk by Club member, John Thurstan, who related his experience of trying to achieve an acceptable sound system in Holy Trinity Church in Chesterfield.

As John explained, setting up a public address system should be quite simple. A microphone receives a sound which it converts into an electric current. This is then amplified, sent to a loudspeaker where it drives a paper cone which moves the air and makes the sound we hear. Alas, this is where problems arise because the quality of this sound depends on where the listener is sited; out of doors, or in a room with sound absorbent soft furnishings, or in a concert hall, or – worst of all – in an echoey church. It follows that the more reflecting surfaces there are in an indoor space, the more the amplified sounds will ‘bounce’ around and interfere with each other, resulting in a blurring effect for the listener. These difficulties can be overcome by careful siting of loudspeakers and the correct use of the microphones, but often only after a considerable amount of trial-and-error experimentation.

In his professional career, John had spent many years working in hospital ENT clinics and had thereby acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience in the workings of the human ear. For the second part of his talk, he described the physiology of this remarkable piece of equipment, and he showed how easily it can be damaged. He also explained how our hearing naturally deteriorates over time, but he stressed that we should avoid exacerbating this process by our own actions in overloading them with loud sounds. As he pointed out, ‘Taking your ears to a pop concert is like weighing an elephant on the bathroom scales.’ Surely, a sufficient warning to take great care of your hearing?

John Thurstan and Paul Davies

4th December 2025

On this typically cold, grey and wet December day, we were reminded of sunny skies and summer warmth by our colleague, John Hopkins, who presented a talk about his experiences as a schools inspector in Dubai.

Having spent a career in teaching, culminating in a headmastership in Wales, and approaching the age of retirement, John was presented with the opportunity to serve as an inspector of schools in a team of education experts operating in the United Arab Emirates. Initially, his appointment was for a short period but, in the event, he spent twelve years based mainly in Dubai, although he also worked in most of the other UAE states during that time.

As he explained, the international nature of the businesses operating in Dubai with their high proportion of expatriate employees, has led to the establishment of a great number and variety of schools. These cater for the educational needs of the children of Dubai’s immigrant and transitory workforce as well as those of the more affluent members of the indigenous population. Of course, schools exist which are funded and run directly by the State, but it was the schools in the fee-paying private sector that came within the scope the of inspectorate of which John was a member. In order to illustrate the complexity of Dubai’s private schools, John described the mix of cultural, ethnic and religious differences between them. The nationalities of the students included those from India, Pakistan and other countries of South Asia, together with Americans and Europeans, and many from the UAE itself and other Arab states. The teaching staff in these schools reflected a similar range of nationalities.

The school inspections considered such factors as the students’ academic achievements, their personal and social development, the quality of teaching, and the appropriateness of the curriculum. Following inspections, schools were graded from ‘Outstanding’ through three intermediate levels to the lowest ‘Weak’. It was found that, overall, the standard of the private schools was high and, over the period between 2008 and 2024, consistently improving.

In concluding his talk, the speaker gave his impressions of Dubai. He described it as vibrant, clearly very prosperous and tolerant of foreign influences and attitudes, provided its own values and culture are respected.

John Hopkins and Paul Davies

20th November 2025

When, on the grounds of ‘Health and Safety’, we are prevented from carrying out a course of action, we sometimes complain that such considerations are an infringement of our liberties. However, the need for such legislation was clearly demonstrated at today’s meeting when club member Tony Fry described three catastrophic industrial accidents which, most probably, would have been avoided had the relevant health and safety laws been in existence at the time or, if those already in force had been observed.

The first of these events described by the speaker was an explosion at a chemical processing plant at Flixborough in North Lincolnshire in 1974. This facility was manufacturing caprolactam – a key ingredient used to make Nylon. The process involved a series of connected steel retorts operating at high temperature and pressure. At the time of the accident, one of these had been found to be inoperable and therefore had been isolated by making a temporary pipework connection between its two neighbouring retorts. On the day of the accident this connection failed, with the result that a huge vapour cloud engulfed the site and ignited with a massive explosion that was felt many miles away and which caused injury and death to dozens of workers at the plant. At the subsequent enquiry it was clear that a number of factors, some relatively minor but whose cumulative effect caused the disaster, were to blame.

For his second example of industrial accidents, Tony turned to the North Sea, in particular the Piper Alpha oil production platform. Here there was an explosion in July 1988, during maintenance work on a gas condensate pump. At the end of their shift, a gang of workers failed to secure a vital piece of equipment on the pump and left instructions to the oncoming shift not to use the pump. However, this warning was not received and the new group of workers switched on the faulty pump, with the result that there was an escape of gas which immediately ignited, engulfing the rig in fire. In the following hours, a series of explosions devastated the rig, which then collapsed into the sea. Altogether, 167 lives were lost on that day.  The enquiry into the accident identified numerous failings in maintenance procedures, communication, design and emergency procedures. Again, as in the case of Flixborough, many different factors had combined to disastrous effect.

Finally, the speaker described the causes of an explosion in 2005 at the Buncefield oil storage depot in Hertfordshire. In this case, there was an undetected spillage of petrol from a storage tank while it was being filled. The highly inflammable vapour ignited in a huge explosion which, in its turn, set off a series of further explosions and fires which eventually spread to the entire facility. On this occasion, there was no loss of life but numerous buildings around the site were severely damaged. Once again, the findings of the subsequent enquiry into the fire established that several factors had contributed to the overall disaster.

In conclusion, these three disasters shared many similarities. Working practices had become too familiar, leading to complacency, correct maintenance had not been carried out, suitably skilled and knowledgeable staff were absent, and financial pressures had been allowed to rule over safety.

Tony Fry and Paul Davies