Archive for the ‘Meetings’ Category

28
Jan

February General Meeting

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags: , , ,

Our first general meeting of the year will take place on Saturday, 9 February 2019, at 2 pm at our usual meeting rooms at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts.

Our featured speaker will be our long-serving executive committee member and treasurer, Judy Howard.

February General Meeting

The Siege of Constantinople in 1453 (Wikimedia Commons)

In her talk, “The Byzantine Empire from the end of the Fourth Crusade to defeat by the Ottomans in 1453”, she will be exploring this fascinating Christian civilization, the end of which had many social and political reverberations throughout Europe and Britain.

Please also remember that the next biennial Australasian Convention of the Richard III Society will be held Friday, 9 August, through Sunday, 11 August 2019.  This year it will be hosted by the Victorian Branch and will take place in Melbourne.  For more information is available from our publications officer, Dorothea.

24
Nov

December Branch Meeting

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags: ,

Our December Branch Meeting will take place on 8 December 2018 at 2 pm at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, CBD (for a map go to our Upcoming Events page).

Our featured speaker for the last meeting of the year will be our own long-time branch member and long-serving executive committee member, Lynne Foley, who will give a presentation on some of the more colourful Christmas customs of the Ricardian era.

Please join us for this festive time of year!

15
Oct

Annual General Meeting of the NSW Branch

   Posted by: Judith Hughes Tags: ,

Last Saturday, 13 October 2018, the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society held its Annual General Meeting.  After the official part was concluded, Marnie and Christopher entertained us with an interesting talk on Richard III’s re-interment.

Here is the Annual Report, which our Chairperson, Judith Hughes, delivered to the AGM.

Chairperson’s Report to the Annual General Meeting 2018

As Chairperson of the New South Wales Branch of the Richard III Society, it is my privilege to present the annual report for the 2017-2018 Ricardian Year.

Our enthusiastic membership continues to increase, enjoying the erudite and well researched talks and the friendly social contact at our Society meetings.

We continue to meet at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts at 280 Pitt Street, which has proved a convenient venue for our Ricardians in spite of Sydney’s present shambolic transport conditions.

Particular thanks to our wonderful committee, who keep our society running so efficiently. Rhonda as secretary and Judy as treasurer have facilitated so much great work throughout the year.

Leslie continues to publicise our activities through the Affinity newsletter, while Lynne, our vice-chairperson, has proved willing to step up to lead as well as to collect meeting fees. Joan continues to prepare delicious afternoon teas and to donate special raffle prizes, while Rachel has selected our book raffle prizes. Dorothea is our membership secretary and liaises with the English headquarters.

Very special gratitude must be extended to Laurence, who has run our website, and to Mike who will take over from Laurence as he retires. Mike supplies the sound system, which so greatly enhances the enjoyment of listening to our guest speakers.

Welcome to the committee to Marnie, who is so helpful and enthusiastic.

Once again we have contributed to the Bosworth wreath in the UK, while in Sydney we have been welcomed as usual to the Anglican Church of Australia, St James King Street, to commemorate Richard III and those who were lost at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Afterwards members met for lunch at the Vanto Restaurant in the Queen Victoria Building.

In November, we are looking forward to attending our Ricardian Conference which will, once again, be held at Albury. By meeting near the state border, it allows members, who cannot because of distance attend our bi-monthly meetings, to join us. The conference has been organised by Denise and Helen, Julia and Kevin to whom we are truly grateful.

For activities throughout the year, we have been delighted to rely on some very well-motivated speakers to share their research in most interesting talks and activities. Denise and Helen presented an amusing talk about Richard earlier in the year.

Our own Robert Hamblin awardee, Julia, talked to us about “Midsomer Murders”. She believes that many high-profile murders historically took place in the months between April and September She had researched the background of these murders. An example was the killing of the Scottish king Duncan by Macbeth as recorded by William Shakespeare as for the revenge killing of Lady Macbeth’s uncle years before.

Dorothea provided us with a beautifully illustrated talk about the Ewelme Alms Houses of the de la Pole family, which are still in use today.

Guest-speaker Rob Shipton told us about clocks throughout the ages.

Kevin constructed a quiz which explored Richard’s family. Each section highlighted a part of Richard’s life and served as a review of Richard’s life, a lively discussion ensuing.

At this October meeting, Chris and Marnie will discuss research into a recently discovered manuscript which elucidates the mystery of Richard’s burial, while Lynne Foley will present the talk “Christmas Rites and Customs” at our December meeting.

During the year we have been able to assist and encourage several Higher School Certificate students to research their History extension about Richard III. We wish them good luck for their HSC and look forward to greeting them at our meetings in the new year.

Thanks to all our members for their support. We look forward to seeing you all next year.

(We thank Jennie for the above photo of our speakers.)

13
Sep

Annual General Meeting

   Posted by: Dorothea Preis

The committee of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society would like to invite you to the Annual General Meeting.  The AGM will be held at 2 pm on Saturday, 13 October 2018, at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000.

The committee needs new members.  Please consider, whether you would be able to support your branch of the Richard III Society by joining the committee.  If you would like to assist, please contact our Membership Secretary (at membership@richardiii-nsw.org.au) for a nomination form.

After the official part of the meeting we will be treated to talks by two Scrabble speakers.  They drew a Scrabble tile out of a bag earlier this year and prepared a short talk on a topic chosen by them, starting with the letter they drew.

9
Aug

Bosworth Service on 19 August 2018

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

St James’ Church

Every year the Anglican Church of St James at 173 King Street in Sydney holds a service in which it briefly commemorates the Battle of Bosworth, and many of our members attend whether or not they are usually church-goers. It is a lovely historic building and offers the beautiful ‘high church’ Anglo-Catholic tradition of worship with incense and processing of the clergy. The service starts at 11:00 am, after which those who wish to usually go for lunch somewhere nearby.

The congregation has always been very welcoming to Richard III Society members, and we feel grateful that they are able to recognise Richard III in this way. All welcome.

(The above photo of St James’ Church is by Whiteghost.ink via Wikimedia Commons.)

2
Aug

The August General Meeting

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

Our next General Meeting will take place on Saturday, 11 August 2018 at 2:00 PM.

The highly anticipated speaker for our next meeting will be long time member and raconteur par excellence, Kevin, presenting an array of amazing facts about Richard III and quizzing members on their own knowledge of our favourite monarch. Please join us on Level 1 at 280 Pitt Street, at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts for what promises to be an enjoyable program.

3
Jun

The Clock Is Ticking

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

Our next meeting will take place at our regular venue, the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, on Saturday, 9 June 2018, at 2 pm.  This meeting will feature popular guest speaker Rob Shipton, an expert on the topic of antique clocks and the science of timekeeping throughout the ages. Rob is a retired lecturer in design at the University of Technology in Sydney.

Prague Astronomical Clock detail

We will also be discussing the details of the upcoming mini-conference being held in Albury in November that have been provided by organisers Helen and Denise. It is time to start making our plans!

Some Sydney-based members are planning to travel together by train timed to arrive for check-in at the Albury Manor Hotel on the afternoon of Thursday 8 November 2018. An evening activity has been planned for those arriving then. The full program starts the next day Friday 9 November 2018 and will include many interesting speakers, am & pm teas, and a banquet dinner (“costume optional”). More detailed information and registration materials can be found here.

 

31
Mar

April General Meeting of the NSW Branch

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

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.

4
Feb

Next General Meeting 10 Feb. 2018

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags: , ,

We would like to invite you to our first meeting of the new year, on 10 Feb. 2018 at 2pm at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts.

Our speaker will be our own Dorothea, who has spoken to us often on many different Ricardian topics. Her chosen topic will be “William & Alice de la Pole’s God’s House at Ewelme”.

The cloister of God’s House at Ewelme

As many of us know, Dorothea came originally from Germany. After living for 5 years in the UK, she came to Australia in 1998. Dorothea joined the Richard III Society in 2004 and has since served in a variety of positions on the committee of the NSW Branch, at present as Membership Secretary. In addition, she is a member of the Bulletin Committee of the Society as a whole.

Dorothea has always been fascinated by things relating to Richard’s time in our world today, be it places or items or even ideas. Another area of interest is the lives of medieval people. Therefore, God’s House was an obvious choice: it is a place you can visit today, it hasn’t changed much since the 15th century and it involves the de la Pole family, who were anything but boring.

Dorothea decided to be a bit like the story of ‘Muhammad and the mountain’, if we can’t pop over to Oxfordshire to the real God’s House, God’s House will have to come here. We look forward to hearing her presentation!

1
Dec

The next meeting of the NSW Branch

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

meetingThe last general meeting of the year will take place on Saturday, 9 December 2017, at 2:00 PM.

We are very pleased to welcome back long-time member Julia as featured speaker, to bring us her insight on the topic of “Midsummer Murders”, her well-received presentation at the Albury mini-conference last year. Julia has been a passionate presenter about Richard III at civic and educational groups for many years.

Julia was Secretary of the New South Wales Branch for nine years, until she retired to far-flung Fingal Bay in 2013. A repeat offender attending all the conventions of the Australasian Richard III Society Branches since 1997, she has also been dogsbody for two NSW Branch conventions and three mini conferences (four if you count Albury in 2016). Her interest in Richard III started, aged 10 – before the publication of “The Daughter of Time”! – at a performance of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Black Arrow” at London’s Old Vic, when she discovered that the history books were wrong. On stage there was no Wicked Uncle. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was brave, kindly and decisive, rewarding the young hero Dick Sheldon who had saved his life, with a knighthood, and enabling Dick’s marriage with his true love. Instant conversion!

A family and absorbing career finally let her join the NSW Branch in l984 and she was on the committee in various guises before an emergency led to volunteering to be Secretary in 2004. She was presented with the Robert Hamblin Award in 2009, still framed and close to a map of historic York and the portrait of the last Plantagenet king in her study. Although distance and uncooperative timetables stop her from attending meetings in Sydney, interest in Richard is still found on the mid-north coast.  Her talk on “What happened to the Princes?” still holds the attendance record at a local library.  It could be the coffee and biscuits provided, but one group revealed they had missed their bridge club meeting that morning so as to specifically find out more about Richard III. Ricardians of course never stop doing this.

We hope that many of you will be able to join Julia and other members on 9 December, not only to find out more about “Midsummer Murders”, but also to meet up with friends and make new friends, who share your interest.