Planned Lectures
Fri, 6 Sep 2024
About the lecture:
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A SPECIAL TICKETED EVENT AND WILL BE ON A FRIDAY
This is the story of ground-breaking history of women in British Intelligence, revealing for the first time their pivotal role across the first half of the 20th Century.
Across the twentieth century women took on an extraordinary range of roles in intelligence defying the conventions of the time. In both world wars, far from being a small part of covert operations, they ran spy networks and escape lines, parachuted behind enemy lines and interrogated prisoners.
And back in Bletchley and Whitehall, women’s vital administrative work in Military Intelligence offices kept the British war running.
Helen Fry looks at the rich and varied work women undertook as civilians and in uniform. From spies in the Belgian network “La Dame Blanche,” knitting coded messages into jumpers, to those who interpreted aerial images and even ran entire sections, Fry shows just how crucial women were in the intelligence mission.
Filled with hitherto unknown stories, Women in Intelligence places new research on record for the first time and showcases the inspirational contributions of these remarkable women.
Helen’s book with the same title will be available at the meeting.
Helen has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage and spies, and MI9 escape and evasion.
She is the foremost authority on the ‘secret listeners’ who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Her groundbreaking research and extensive media coverage have shed light on one of the greatest intelligence deceptions of the war: the bugging of Hitler’s generals at Trent Park in North London, and thousands of prisoners of war at Latimer House and Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire.
Helen is the official biographer of MI6 spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. She has also extensively written about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain during WWII.
Thanks to her expertise, Helen has appeared in a number of documentaries, including David Jason’s Secret Service (Channel 5), Spying on Hitler’s Army (Channel 4), and Secrets of the Spies (Britbox). She has provided advisory services for TV and drama, something that she particularly enjoys. Helen has covered the major D-Day commemorations in live BBC broadcasts from Normandy, and she regularly appears in media interviews and podcasts.
Tue, 1 Oct 2024
About the lecture:
From Parish Constables to the Formation of the Oxfordshire Constabulary
Policing Henley-on-Thames from Parish Constables to the formation of the Oxfordshire Constabulary in 1857 shows the progression from the hue and cry system required from every eligible citizen through to the duties of the parish constables selected annually from the population by the town Mayor, regardless of their wishes, to a more professional police in the small market town of Henley-on-Thames.
The names of those private Henley citizens selected to carry out the constable’s duties are known through surviving records; newspaper reports ;and Assize and Quarter Session trial records. Parish Constables were expected to carry on their trade whilst being called upon at any time to fulfil their policing duties. Their only reward was expenses paid by the victim of crime, once a successful prosecution was obtained.
Reporting to the town Justices, these Henley constables maintained law and order in the town, dealing with diverse offences of Murder, Assault, Burglary and Larceny, with sentences resulting in imprisonment, and on occasions transportation to Australia, or the death penalty. In 1830 the corporation decided that the town needed a more ‘professional’ police force which resulted in two salaried constables. One resident, Henry Stephens became the longest-serving Henley constable from 1834 to 1862 and was regarded as ‘our active constable’ in local newspapers. A hero by today’s standards, he relentlessly pursued criminals bringing them to justice for over a quarter of a century, only to die a pauper.
If you thought that the first Henley police station was on the corner of Kings Road beside the Town Hall – pictured above – you are wrong! That one opened in 1869. The first one however was a lock-up which opened in 1854 in the old Guildhall, then in Middle Row, now the Market Place. It had 2 cells and a house for the police constable.
Andrew spent two years researching the subject and has gathered the names and stories of those who have kept law and order in the Town.
Andrew King was born in Henley-on-Thames and attended Gillotts School. He joined the Thames Valley Constabulary in 1971, and attended the No.5 Regional Training Centre, Eynsham Hall, North Leigh, Witney, Oxon. He served in uniform for five years, before completing the Metropolitan Police Detective Training Course at Peel House, Hendon, in 1977. Andrew then worked on CID, Special Branch and the Fraud Squad, where he undertook various investigations that involved overseas travel to the Russian Federation, British Virgin Islands and the USA. Following his retirement from the Thames Valley Police after 32 years, Andrew worked as a fraud investigator for a private accountancy firm, and undertook overseas fraud enquiries in South Africa, Senegal, Mauritania and Malawi, on behalf of the Department for International Development and Oxfam. He is a member of the Police History Society and the Oxfordshire Family History Society.
Tue, 5 Nov 2024
About the lecture:
Reading Abbey was built as a royal mausoleum by King Henry I; a great architectural statement made by a king who has been described as the most powerful of his time in Western Europe.
At the same time it has remained something of an enigma, scarcely mentioned in the standard histories of architecture because information about it remained scanty. Most of the fabric was destroyed soon after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and what remained was the site of a siege in the sixteenth-century Civil War.
As a source of building stone in the centre of a growing town, the ruins have repeatedly been plundered. Only recently has it become possible to bring together the scattered evidence into a coherent narrative.
Ron Baxter is an art historian specialising in the medieval period. After a brief flirtation with manuscripts, leading to the publication of Bestiaries and their Users in the Middle Ages (Sutton Publishing 1998), he turned to stone sculpture, and to the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland (CRSBI), for which he is the Research Director and an active fieldworker. He took his first degree and his PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he was the Slide Librarian, and later the Conway Librarian, while teaching undergraduate courses.
On his retirement from the Courtauld, he taught at York University (UK), but he is now freelance. In addition to his CRSBI work he frequently lectures and continually writes on art and architectural history and has published a monograph on Reading Abbey (The Royal Abbey of Reading (Boydell and Brewer 2016), and co-edited the British Archaeological Association’s Transactions for their Peterborough conference, which he also helped to organise (R. Baxter, J. Hall and C. Marx (ed.), Peterborough and the Soke: Art Architecture and Archaeology (British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions XLI), Routledge, Abingdon 2019). He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a member of the Fabric Advisory Committee of Peterborough Cathedral.
Tue, 3 Dec 2024
About the lecture:
Hidden Gems & Stories.
A glimpse at some of the many historical, unusual and sometimes hidden churches and churchyards in and around Berkshire and the people associated with them.
Lots of stories and social history and an introduction to some of our most historic small churches.
My interest in history developed from childhood, whilst growing up in Norfolk. I pursued that at university, reading prehistory and archaeology.
After an enjoyable career in retail finance, I returned to University, studying firstly for a diploma and then a Masters in English Local History at Oxford. I have published several books on family and local history and I am currently chair of Berkshire Family History Society. For the last 15 years I have also been alternatively chair, secretary or committee member of my local history society in Purley.
My talks are generally focused on aspects of social history, and I aim to engage, inform, provoke conversation and entertain
Tue, 10 Dec 2024
About the lecture:
Not so much a lecture – more a party!
Think of the Antiques Road Show – without the valuations!
Members will be invited to bring along any personal item of historic interest and to show it, and talk about it for a few minutes. We will also share some wine and seasonal goodies. We plan to allow plenty of opportunity for socialising. Free to members only.
More information will be sent to members!