A faithful band of regulars gathered on this chilly winter’s day for the branch meeting of the Richard III Society NSW Branch, and also to observe the 11 June birthday of Anne Neville, Richard’s wife, with special cupcakes for the occasion.

We were pleased to have the presence of a lovely new laptop computer that had been purchased for branch meeting presentations, as well as to assist the teams giving talks to all the civic organisations that welcome them so heartily all over the Sydney area. This means that future speakers will be able to bring multimedia and PowerPoint presentations from now on, which will add to everyone’s enjoyment.

Jenny, who has a long association with the branch,  brought her treasured silver groat to share with us. She had made this lucky purchase some 20 years ago in New Zealand for $175 in the local currency, whereas a coin from the reign of Richard III would now be worth up to £6,000 due to extreme scarcity. Jenny’s delicate groat was an authentic coin of the realm of the Edward IV era. The intricately engraved and well-worn coin was passed around and studied carefully by everyone present. We marveled at being able to hold a coin used in Richard’s lifetime.

Gillian was our Guest Speaker, and had kindly come all the way from Canberra to reprise her presentation from the 2009 Australasian Conference in Perth. The background and inspiration for her interesting talk on the powerful Percy family, which arrived in England with William the Conquerer, was the book Kings in the North by Alexander Rose. Gillian carefully outlined an overview of the major life points of the Earls of Northumberland throughout the centuries our Society is most interested in. Their interwoven family trees showed intermarriage and dynastic conflict between the mighty Percy, Mortimer and Neville families, which had laid the groundwork for the War of the Roses.

The next meeting in August will feature several Scrabble speakers on the topics of their choice starting with the letter the intrepid volunteers drew out of a hat at the April meeting.

Tags: NSW Branch