Our 2024-25 programme

New paragraph

Date

Title

Speaker

Description

18 September 2024



16 October 2024























20 November 2024









11 December 2024







15 January 2025













19 February 2025











19 March 2025
















16 April 2025











21 May 2025











18 June 2025













16 July 2025





Annual General Meeting


Around the World for Eighteen Pence: Exhibitions in London 1871 to 1924











The American Dream





Christmas Lunch

(Tandridge Golf Club)



Secret Siberia: an illustrated journey by rail








Buttle UK- Giving children in crisis a chance for change





Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: the Norwood Years








Curing cancer- how research is done and how it is funded






My neighbour Roald Dahl






Prinny,  Caroline and the Mob








My life as a loyal air Force Policeman 1970 -1992


No speaker


Michael Gilbert













Andrew Baker





No speaker




Paul Whittle









Joe Howes (CEO Buttle) and David Buttle (great nephew of founder)



Bernard Winchester









Dr Jeremy Carlton, Reader in Molecular and Cell Biology , Kings College London


André Potocki






Elizabeth Lanyon










Philip Waite





It wasn't just the Great Exhibition of 1851 that thrilled the country but there was a series of subsequent international exhibitions in London - these include annual exhibitions in South Kensington 1871- 74, the Imperial International Exhibition at White City in 1809 and the Crystal Palace Festival of Empire in 1911. The culminating exhibition was that of 1924/25 at Wembley when millions visited to see the wonders of the modern world



With a new President just elected we hear what is (or was) the 'American Dream'  and how it has changed over time







For most of us Siberia remains a mysterious, frozen and desolate  region with sinister reminders of its history as a Soviet dumping ground for criminals and dissidents. More than five times the size of the UK but with a population  not much more than half, this will be a visit to an unknown land.


The story of Buttle UK, an important charity founded by Rev Frank Buttle who lived in Woldingham before becoming a priest in East London



Conan Doyle lived for only four years in Tennison Road, South Norwood but it was one of his most productive periods during which over twenty of the Sherlock Holmes series and his historical novels The White company appeared




Dr Carlton takes us through the front line of research as new answers are found







André from Sandown Probus talks of his years as a neighbour of celebrated author Roald Dahl and the influence of Great Missenden and its people on the plots and characters in his books


When the future George IV met Caroline, his future wife, he turned to his secretary and said "Harris, I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy." The marriage was probably the worst ever Royal marriage, in a well filled field, and London almost succumbed to the Mob.


Home and abroad with the RAF including what went on behind the scenes for Royal, Ministerial and VVIP visits