The next general meeting of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society will be on Saturday, 14 April 2018, at 2pm at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000.

Our featured speakers for April will be Branch members Helen and Denise. Helen and Denise met in kindergarten and, instantly recognizing a mutual interest in history and fairness, forged a strong crusading bond. Reading Josephine Tey’s novel, Daughter of Time, in primary school fired up their fervour for a king maligned by history, but it was many years before they became aware of an actual group of people who held similar views.

Helen saw an article in the Sydney Morning Herald in the quincentenary year of the battle of Bosworth (1985) that mentioned a UK society with a branch in Sydney.  She has been a member ever since.  Denise has been less reliable but always in touch. Denise has lived for many years around and in Canberra.  Helen was able to attend meetings for some years while she lived in Mosman but with a move to the Southern Highlands found it hard to stay in touch with regular branch activities.

In recent times, they have both been able to attend quite a few Australasian conferences. They also organised a very successful mini-conference in Albury in 2016 and are busy organising another one to take place later this year.   A recent highlight for them was travelling to Leicester for the reinterment in 2015. The name of their talk is: A New Kingdom – Richard III in the Digital Age. It will be based on their presentation at the Perth Australasian Convention of October 2017, with reference to their presentation at the 2016 Albury mini-conference. They will look at various aspects of the King’s reputation in the new age of technology and social media.