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. )

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.

One of the most poignant finds at the recent discovery of the “real” battlesite at Bosworth was a gilt solid silver boar, which was found by a metal detectorist (see here).  Now another boar brooch has been found, this time near the village of Stillingfleet in Richard III’s “home” county of Yorkshire.

The brooch depicting a wild boar has been dated to the 15th Century, which makes a connection to Richard, whose symbol was the white boar, likely.

The above photograph shows a modern day replica of the Bosworth boar.  Items like this are worn with pride by our branch members at Ricardian events.  They are available from the Richard III Society (go to ‘Society Shop’, it is on page 7 of the Catalogue).

Source:

‘Two medieval brooches discovered’, Selby Times (17 December 2011).  URL:  http://www.selbytimes.co.uk/news/local-news/district-news/two_medieval_brooches_discovered_1_4059814 Date accessed:  18 December 2011

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 »

Our last branch meeting of the year was held on 10 December 2011. The Sydney Mechanics’ Institute meeting room was once again filled with members and guests, as well as friends like Jenny Savage visiting from overseas, but sadly with a number of regulars missing, as well, who had given their apologies. They were missed!

Introductory remarks were made by our branch president Judith Hughes, who welcomed us to this celebratory gathering. Her words were followed by the treasurer’s, secretary’s and webmaster’s reports. Our finances are healthy, and the website has many visitors. However, the branch library holdings pose a problem, especially as they are not being utilised by members; a discussion was held about the future of the library. A number of ideas were mooted such as donating books to the Medieval Studies Department of one of the local universities, or to the Mitchell Library. People were happy to have the fiction sold at the upcoming conference in Mittagong, or elsewhere, to add to the branch’s coffers.

We also welcomed Rosemary Burgess’ personal impressions of the Society AGM in the UK, which she had attended.  Judith Hughes and Jacqui Turner told us about the Old Vic production of Shakespeare’s Richard III with Kevin Spacey, which is currently showing in Sydney.

Our full program for the day was delightful and varied, and had obviously required much imagination, work, and rehearsal by our committee, as well as the hard work of several participants from the audience.

First there was a presentation by Julia Redlich about the importance of astrology in Ricardian times, surprisingly joined and assisted in a theatrical vignette by Isolde Martyn as Henry Tudor sharing his intended policies if he were ever king. One example was equality for women, so that they too could lose their heads if they crossed him.

After which there was a Star Signs Quiz, requiring players to match the astrological character description with the right Ricardian personage offered as a multiple choice. With infamously strong characters like Henry VII, Elizabeth Woodville, and Margaret Beaufort, it was a fascinating challenge to try to match them up with the hints. It was actually quite hard but pleasurable work, with most members managing to answer at least some of them correctly, even if by sheer luck, and receiving prizes of chocolates. At the end, it appeared that everyone was munching happily, whether or not they had guessed correctly.

Isolde Martyn (in full medieval male garb), Jenny Savage, and Julia Redlich then presented several Christmas standards rewritten as Ricardian themed parodies, being Henry Tudor’s Christmas List (sung to the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas) and We Three Kings, with the audience invited to join in on the choruses.

Raffles were drawn then, with many people going home happy with their lovely winnings, along with purchases from the Bring and Buy table which had been laden with the usual appealing fare. Afternoon tea was then provided by the Committee, who always takes such good care of us. It was a lovely ending to another excellent year of programs!

The first meeting of the New Year will be on a different time-table than usual, so please take note: the first Saturday of the month, being 4 February 2012, with an invited guest speaker discussing Medieval Architecture.

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!

This coming Saturday, 10 December 2011, we’ll have our last General Meeting for this year.

Julia will tell us everything about ‘Richard III – and the stars’, ie. astrological connections.  Another treat is promised by Isolde’s “Choir”, who will entertain us with seasonal songs with Plantagenet – and Tudor – connections.  And of course there will also be our traditional Christmas celebration.

Make sure you join us at 14h00 at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts.  As always, visitors are most welcome.

In the ‘Spectrum’ supplement to today’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne there is an article by Elissa Blake about the Old Vic production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, which is coming to Sydney the coming week.  Should you have a print copy of either paper, you can have a look, otherwise there are links below.

For her article Elissa wanted to get a variety of views of the role.  She talked to John Bell, the artistic director of Bell Shakespeare, who had played the role three times;  to Ewen Leslie, who played Shakespeare’s baddie in last year’s production of the Melbourne Theatre Company; and Pamela Rabe, who played Richard III in the Sydney Theatre Company production of The War of the Roses  in 2009.

However, last but not least, she talked to one of the “enthusiasts in the worldwide Richard III Society”.  Elissa interviewed me by phone about 10 days ago.  It was just a short conversation, but obviously I tried to cram as much information as possible into it – needless to say that only a small part made it into her article.   We welcome Elissa’s interest and appreciate that she was prepared to look past the theatrical Richard to the real Richard.  And we feel  honoured that she left us with the last word in such an illustrious group of interviewees.

You can find the article here:
Sydney Morning Herald
The Age

Our committee decided a while ago that our branch logo needed to be brought into the 21st century.  According to our old logo we were the “Sydney Branch”, but it has been a long time since we only had members from Sydney.  Thanks to Judith we were in contact with Terry who designed our new artwork.  After a lot of consultations and discussions, we can at long last show you our new logos.  Hope you like them, we certainly do!