Born within the sound of Bow Bells, Eileen became a Ricardian in 1955 after reading Historical Whodunits by Hugh Ross Williams, and she was one of the earliest members of the Sydney Branch around 1981 when the group met in committee members’ houses.

Eileen performing a sketch (photo by I Martyn)

She had a tremendous sense of fun and 1983 saw the first comic sketch that we did together at the Commemoration Banquet in the Sydney School of Arts with Eileen Junoesque and magnificent in a long wine red velvet mantle and black hat. Other sketches and songs followed through the eighties and nineties including a forty-five minute off-schedule entertainment at the Australian and New Zealand Medieval and Renaissance Conference in Hobart, and a special performance of the ‘Oh no, Thomas More’ song for Professor Tony Pollard.

One of her most memorable roles was a party political broadcast as Boudicca sporting a pudding basin with horns, and carrying a spear. Oh yes, and a yellow wig as well! She also did a political speech as Lady Margaret Beaufort imitating the UK Prime Minister of the time with a Thatcheresque breathy voice. She very much enjoyed being part of Ye Kynge’s Syngers and she was also an eager participant in scenes from Shakespeare and other playwrights, organised by our actor member, the later Peter Ryan, with some of his fellow players.

Besides King Richard, Eileen’s other great passion was enjoying Shakespeare plays.

Despite being badly afflicted by rheumatoid arthritis in her hands and feet, and with responsibility every weekend for her Down Syndrome daughter, she nevertheless never let it stop her from attending meetings and dressing up for the medieval cabarets. Recently, she was delighted to know that some of the songs and sketches were still being used from time to time.

Eileen was 87 when she died at the retirement home on 9 November.

The Annual General Meeting of the New South Wales Branch of the Richard III Society was held on Saturday, 12 October 2013, at the Harry Jensen Centre.

Opening remarks were made by Chair Judith, with a review of the branch activities in the past year, a very exciting one for Ricardians. A warm welcome was extended to the new members and visitors present. Thanks were expressed for the work of all the committee members throughout the year, with gifts given to Julia and Kevin – both stepping down after many years of devoted contribution to the branch.

Thank you, Julia and Kevin, for many years of service to the branch!

Judy delivered her report as Treasurer about the financial success of the convention and good finances due to new members. Dorothea told us that the website is attracting more visitors than ever. Lynne reported on Sales. Julia presented her last report as Secretary, which included a look-back at some of the highlights of the branch activities over the past year.

The Committee then officially stepped down, and Carole facilitated the elections for all of the officers of the branch.  A number of officers returned unopposed to their roles, including Judith as Chair, Judy as Treasurer, Dorothea as Webmaster and Editor of the Chronicles, Lynne as Sales Officer, and Rosemary as Tea Lady. New faces on the committee included Rachel as Secretary, Angela as Social Secretary, Leslie as editor of the Affinity newsletter, Joan as keeper of the portrait of Richard, and Jacqueline as Deputy Chair. (You can see some of the new – and old – faces here.)

Our scheduled guest speaker was unable to come, so our Chair Judith presented a talk about the innovations encountered by the medieval crusaders when they ventured east. They brought back with them a world of new ideas and treasures including glass, lacquer, porcelain, many new spices, gems like turquoise, pearls and jade, silks and satins, buttons, ivory and ebony, paper, poppy seeds and gunpowder, the concept of the musical scale, the idea of carrying banners and of decorating one’s horses. The works of the great Greek thinkers, such as Aristotle, had been lost with the fall of Rome and during the Dark Ages, but had been preserved by Arabic scholars. These works were now re-introduced to Western Europe, leading to great intellectual development in the 11th and 12th centuries. It was a wonderful talk, illustrated with exquisite examples of gems and objets d’art from Judith’s private collection.

Our next gathering will be our Christmas meeting scheduled for 14 December 2013, when Lynne will be speaking about medieval jewelry.

The AGM of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society will be held on 12 October 2013 at 14h00 at our usual venue, the  Harry Jensen Centre, 17 Argyle Street, Millers Point.

As it is every year, the AGM is your last opportunity to renew your subscription.  If you haven’t renewed your subscription by sending your Renewal Notice and indication of payment (either by cheque or direct credit) to our treasurer Judy by Friday, 11 October 2013, you will be able to do in person at the AGM.  Please make sure that you bring payment AND the filled in Renewal Notice with you.

There will be a few changes to the composition of the committee on the cards, with some members stepping down.   We thank them for their tireless work on behalf of all of us.  However, we also thank those, who have bravely put up their hands to become part of our branch committee.

And after all the housekeeping, there will be a fascinating talk.  Unfortunately our scheduled speaker had to pull out at short notice, but Judith will come to the rescue and tell us about ‘Innovations of the Middle Ages’.  This promises to be an interesting topic.

One innovation coming to my mind immediately is Johann Gutenberg and the printing press.  We must not forget that Richard III was a strong supporter of printed books, as he explicitly exempted them from the import and export restrictions in the statutes of his only parliament.   Incidentally the statutes of the 1484 parliament were not only the first to published in English, but also the first to be printed.

So come along and join us to decide on the future committee of YOUR branch and find out which innovations can be traced to the Middle Ages.

Most Society members should have received their September 2013 Ricardian Bulletin during the last days.  Should your copy not have arrived by the AGM, please let our Bulletin coordinator Dorothea know.

On Sunday, 25 August, a group of our members and friends gathered at St Mary’s Church, Waverley, for the morning service.  Sadly some who were coming were prevented by sudden events and others missed their public transport from far-flung areas of Sydney. Oh the tyranny of the Sunday time-tables! But  Rupert and his wife Susan made it (it was Rupert’s birthday), and Angela was able to join us too.

As always we were warmly welcomed by the Rector, choir and parishioners who have always appreciated our attendance on the Sunday nearest the anniversary of King Richard’s death at Bosworth Field. Not only was Richard’s own prayer from his Book of Hours read (abridged of course), but the parish letter for the week made especial mention of why this is such a special year for the Society. It was headed ‘A Message from the Richard III Society’.

This year has been an amazing one for the Society and its members around the world. I think all of us find it hard to believe that we have witnessed – even if from a distance – the discovery of the remains of the man who is the reason the Society exists. Until this year, because no-one knew where he was buried, we have remembered him on the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth Field at church services and by laying white roses at memorials to him.

We now have confirmation that the skeleton discovered during the recent archaeological dig in Leicester is indeed that of Richard III, who hitherto had been the only king of England without a tomb. He had been buried in the choir of the Greyfriars chapel in Leicester, but this was destroyed on Henry VIII’s orders during the Dissolution of the Monasteries between 1536 and 1540. The discovery of his skeleton led by Leicester University could not have taken place without the leadership of two members of the Richard III Society: Philippa Langley and John Ashdown-Hill. Ashdown-Hill is the historian who identified the car park as the site of the Greyfriars chapel, and who also meticulously researched the Richard’s DNA through tracing the descendants of his eldest sister, Anne, Duchess of Exeter. The astonishing match with that of the DNA extracted from the skeleton confirmed identification.

We hope that King Richard will be re-interred in 2014 with all the dignity and admiration that the last Plantagenet King of England deserves.

After the service we joined the parish for morning tea. This was a great opportunity to meet those who were longing to talk about car parks, scoliosis and the unfairness of the reputation that has been foisted on the last Plantagenet king. Copies of our brochure about the Society, and Richard’s life and times were collected, hopefully to counteract any doubts.

As for the morning tea, I doubt if any of us has seen such a splendid one! Delicious ribbon sandwiches, vol-au-vents and pizza slices, chocolate cakes, strawberries and cream – and fine teas and coffee that had never heard the word “instant” applied! Ricardians tried to control their appetites as we knew we had a lunch to attend …

A beautiful bonus to the morning was meeting someone who had just dropped in on the service on her way past. In case she was turned away because of her casual clothes, she thought she could sit in the gardens outside and read the book she had brought with her. She entered St Mary’s, was welcomed, and to her amazement saw a group of people all wearing white roses. Light dawned. The book she was reading was Philippa Gregory’s The Lady of the Rivers, so she knew very well what white roses meant! To cut a long story short, Maggi is about to fill in a membership application form.

Our remembrance of Bosworth Field is always special. This year it was highlighted by the pleasure others expressed that we now know where Richard III has lain for the past 500 plus years and there will be an opportunity to re-inter him with honour.

On Saturday, 10 August 2013, the NSW branch of the Richard III Society was treated to a lecture on medieval contract law by Dr John Twyford.  Dr Twyford is a member of the Military History Society of NSW and has a background in law.

He spoke about the origins of law in regards to Roman law and common law starting with Justinian.  We learned that common law is legislation which is enacted by precedent and derived from previously decided cases.  The informative Domesday Book, feudalism and the laws of heresy were also touched on as well as some fascinating insights into the Magna Carta!  Trial by Ordeal and methods of determining guilt and innocence were a favoured part of the talk as well as some of the law reforms of Richard III himself.  We learned that Richard’s Parliament passed 18 private statutes and 15 public ones, many of these to do with legal reforms and removing benevolences.

We finished off this delightful talk with afternoon tea and more discussion about the search for truth in law as well as history.

The New South Wales Branch of the Richard III Society has been on Facebook for quite a while and we would like to thank all our loyal supporters.  Now you can follow us on Twitter, too!

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/NSW-Branch-of-the-Richard-III-Society/269971479692592

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/RichardIIINSW

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Our next general meeting will take place on Saturday, 10 August, at the Harry Jensen Centre at 14h00. The speaker will be Dr John Twyford.  Dr Twyford is a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).  He will be talking to us about Medieval Contract Law, and will show us the lesser known aspects of the Magna Carta.  He also indicated that his talk will also cover the burning of witches, so be prepared.

A talk about the Magna Carta is a fitting topic for our August 2013 meeting.  The (northern hemisphere) summer of 2013 marks the 800th anniversary of the first meeting meeting between the barons and the clergy to discuss severe grievances against King John at St Albans, in August 1213.  It was this meeting which ultimately led to the articles that became Magna Carta, sealed at Runnymede two years later in 1215.

Our meeting will more than make up for missing the celebrations planned in St Albans.

On Saturday, 8 June, the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society, was treated to a lecture on Richard III, called ‘Between Two World Orders:  Richard III and the Priority of Politics over Truth’, by Ben Cross.  Ben has almost completed his PhD in political philosophy and discussed the different political views of the world throughout history.

We learned that the Greek idea of cosmic justice (dikaiosune) was challenged around Richard III’s time, when people began to understand that they could create or choose their own place in the world, rather than have it decided for them.  However, the one constant theme in history is that power wins and that ‘truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with’ (Richard Rorty).

Hopefully we will continue to question and uncover the truth about Richard III! Thanks to Ben for his fascinating talk!

We also celebrated Queen Anne’s birthday with a gorgeous cake afterwards.

A reminder for our next general meeting on Saturday, 8 June, at 2pm.  The speaker will be Ben Cross, talking to us about ‘Medieval Thought and Philosophy’.  We are so grateful to Ben for finding time for us – he has been frantically busy recently and is shortly to leave for Oxford to complete his PhD thesis on this subject.  However, as we all know, it is those who are the busiest who find the time to fit in something extra.

At every June meeting, we like to make a point of marking the anniversary of the birth of Richard III’s queen, Anne Neville, on 11 June 1456. This means there will be something special to enjoy at our afternoon tea.

Obviously this is a meeting that can’t be missed. See you there!