The following report on the AGM of the Richard III Society in London is by Rosemary Burgess, a Friend of our branch.

When visiting my family in London last October, I phoned Babs Creamer, Secretary of the Richard III Society’s Dorset Group.  I had originally met Babs when I first joined the Society and attended the Australasian Convention at Sydney University in 2005.  Since then Babs has become a regular visitor to New South Wales Branch meetings and events, when she visits her daughter who lives in Sydney.

I was very lucky that my visit coincided with the Annual General Meeting of the Richard III Society in London on Saturday, 1 October 2011.  It was an extremely hot day, so we were all very glad to arrive at the large and air-conditioned auditorium of The School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

The day commenced at 10.30am with coffee and biscuits, followed by the Keynote Lecture by Dr David Starkey on “Yorkist sentiment in the reign of Henry VII”.  By the very title of this talk it was going to be controversial and amusing.  It was both – as well as being very interesting.

After our lunch break we returned for the commencement of the AGM, followed by open forum.  Living so far away and not being involved with the main centre of business, I was most impressed by the way in which the Society is managed.  All the office bearers gave interesting and professional reports, and I was proud of the report given by Hazel Hadju, the Secretary of the Victoria Branch who was also in attendance.  I was also extremely proud of the report sent by our Branch Secretary, Julia Redlich, which was very professional, and it was the only overseas branch to send a report to be read at the AGM.

There are several special events taking place in the UK in 2012, so I’ll mention them in case some of our members may be able to attend:

Sunday, 29 August 2012: Bosworth visit*
Saturday, 29 September 2012: AGM at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York*
Saturday, 15 December 2012: Christmas at Fotheringay*

It was of great interest to visit what we might call “Head Office”.  It strengthened my appreciation of the Richard III Society and made me realise that we all belong to a large and very well-organised Society.

*Further details of these events will be found in copies of the Ricardian Bulletin.

(Photograph of The School of Oriental and African Studies taken by C. Ford; obtained through Wikimedia Commons. )

Tags: Richard III Society

It’s the time for good news, also for our branch.  After the previous hiccup with the original batch of the December 2011 Ricardian Bulletins, the replacements have just arrived and have been mailed out today.  With a bit of luck, you might still get your copy before the holidays.

We all hope that there will be no more problems with missing or duplicated pages.  However, should there be any problems, please do not hesitate to let me know.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Stephen from the parent Society for all his efforts in getting this so quickly sorted out.  I am sure that all of us appreciate the phantatstic job he is doing.

Tags: NSW Branch, Richard III Society

Well, maybe not the whole chapel…

Like so many of the historic buildings in Britain – our branch just recently supported the Middleham Church Appeal with a donation – St Georges Chapel at Windsor is dependent on donations to raise the funds necessary for the conservation of the fabric of the chapel and associated buildings, as it is not the financial responsibility of the State, the Church or the Crown. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Church, Edward IV, Richard III, Richard III Society

A big box with the December 2011 Ricardian Bulletins arrived on Monday, just in time to be distributed at our branch Christmas meeting.

Unfortunately I found that with the majority of them some pages were duplicated while others were missing.  I have been in contact with Stephen, the Distribution Manager in the UK, and he is arranging for replacement.

We would like to thank Stephen for his excellent support.  And we would like to ask our members for a bit of patience – the Bulletins will come!

Tags: NSW Branch, Richard III Society

As reported previously the next triennial conference of the Richard III Society will be taking place next year.  Now the full programme is available and it sounds truly exciting.

It will be held at Burleigh Court, Loughborough, from 20 to 22 April 2012.  The theme is “all about new discoveries and new thinking: from the discovery of the new site of Bosworth and the war graves of Towton to new thinking about battle records, armour and weapons.”  The five speakers are experts at the forefront of their fields.  One of them is Professor Anne Curry, who will explore the representation of battles in contemporary records.  Prof Curry was one of the speakers at the ‘Blood and Roses’ conference in Oxford and a lively and fascinating speaker.

On the Saturday afternoon there will be an optional guided visit to Bosworth and the battle-field centre, which sounds too good to be missed.

You can find the full details and the application form on the website of the Richard III Society in the ‘What’s New’ section.

I know that one of our branch members is planning to attend and we are all looking forward to hearing everything about her experience.  And the good news for the rest of us is that there should be another triennial conference in 2015!

Tags: April, Conventions, Richard III Society

At our AGM on 8 October, the NSW Branch unanimously decided to support the Middleham Church Appeal with a donation of $300.  Of course individual members are also encouraged to think about making a private donation – and I know that some members have done so since we first published the Appeal on our website in September.  However, the branch committee felt it was also important to do something as a branch and to give everyone the opportunity to feel involved.

I’m sure our members will be pleased to know that our contribution, though it might be small in the scope of the repairs needed, did not go unnoticed.  Phil Stone, Chairman of the Richard III Society, send us a ‘thank you’ on behalf of the Appeal and the Executive Committee of the Society saying that it will be appreciated by the folks in Middleham, who would probably not be able to raise the necessary funds on their own.  The Society also thanked us on their Facebook page.

The Church of  St Mary and St Alkelda has such strong Ricardian connections that we would not expect the community of Middleham to shoulder the costs on their own and feel it only right to express our support for Richard III in this way.

Tags: Church, NSW Branch, Richard III Society

The following report on the convention of the Australasian branches of the Richard III Society, which took place 5 – 7 August 2011 in Melbourne, is  by long time Society Member Ann Chandler.  Thank you, Ann, for your entertaining report of what must have been an interesting weekend!

The date finally arrived and we all converged on the Victoria Hotel in Melbourne’s Little Collins Street in the early evening of Friday, August 5. The hotel is a lovely old building with much charm and character, recently renovated and the perfect venue for the convention. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Conventions, NSW Branch, Richard III Society

The June Ricardian Bulletin, the quarterly magazine of the Richard III Society,  and the annual journal, The Ricardian, have arrived in Sydney and will be posted to our members in the next few days.  Both publications form part of a full membership of the NSW Branch of the Society, and as every member can tell you, are always a source of inspiring reports and new insights.

This time the one focus of the Bulletin is on Richard’s biographer, Paul Murray Kendall, commemorating his birth on 1 March 1911.  The other is on the recent study weekend of the Society at York on the de la Pole family.  Summaries of two of the talks are included, the other talks will follow.  Peter Hammond’s ‘Chaucer and de la Pole heraldry’ from the tombs in Ewelme brought many happy memories.

The most interesting article for me in The Ricardian was the one touching on Queens’ College, Cambridge.  Other articles investigate the Yorkist effigy in the church of Minster in Kent, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Edmund de la Pole and ‘The Library of John Austell’.  Add to this reviews of many new books (my wish list is getting longer and longer!) and you get an idea of what to do during the long, cold evenings.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Society’s new Business Manager, Stephen York, on taking on the job and to congratulate him on the way it was handled without any hiccups.  We are hoping for a long and successful cooperation.  And it was especially nice to recognise, when I saw Stephen’s photo in the Bulletin, that I knew him from the ‘Blood and Roses’ weekend in Oxford.

Tags: NSW Branch, Richard III Society

If our recent review of Walk Wakefield 1460 got you into the mood for travelling and visiting the sites of Ricardian history, the Richard III Society is here to help.  The latest addition to the main website of the Richard III Society is a feature on Ricardian Britain:  A guide to sites associated with Richard III.

This web-based guide is based on an earlier printed version published by the Society in 1983.  While the printed version was organised alphabetically, this one is by areas.  So when visiting an area you can be sure that you do not to miss anything of interest.  It also contains a list of places exhibiting portraits of Richard III and the sites of Society presentations (memorials and plaques) as well as some useful websites.

The entries on the included sites include a short introduction of their relevance to Ricardians as well as information on addresses (incl. postcodes and telephone numbers), website addresses, email addresses and directions.

By publishing this guide on the web it can be accessed by Wi-Fi devices such as smart phones or mp3 players with Wi-Fi capabilities from anywhere while travelling.  And if you are not that IT savvy you can print out the relevant pages before leaving home (it is in a pdf format).

Bon yoyage!

(The above photograph of St Albans Cathedral is by the present author)

Tags: Richard III Society