The lectures commence on Wednesday 17 September at 6.30 pm at the Bongard Centre, BOP Polytechnic, Cameron Road, and run every Wednesday for eight weeks. The introduction to the series will be by our President, Stephanie Smith, and the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Waikato, Alister Jones. The speaker on that night will be Dr Kirstine Moffat whose topic is “The Monstrous Anger of the Guns: Poetry, Protest, and WWI”. The regular Sunday meetings will not be held in September and October as we wish to support the lecture series.
Wednesdays
17 Sept - Kirstine Moffat – “Poetry, Protest, and WW1”
24 Sept - Fiona Kean – “Public Opinion in Tauranga from ‘Letters to the Editor’”
1 Oct - Stephanie Smith – “The diary of a BOP Camelier”
8 Oct - Sue Baker Wilson – “NZ Engineers Tunnelling Company”
15 Oct - Dr Damien Fenton – “The Mundane Realities of Trench Warfare”
22 Oct - Dr Nathalie Philippe – “The Liberation of Le Quesnoy”
29 Oct - Dr Cliff Simons – “The Gallipoli Campaign”
5 Nov - Dr Mark Houlahan – “Kiwis and the Shakespeare Hut, London”
Bookings are ESSENTIAL. Please book early to ensure a seat at this free series. Email nyree@waikato.ac.nz. Enquiries phone 027 2867454.
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| Convalescent NZ soldiers on roof of Aotea Home in Egypt, 1918 |
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| Tyne Cot Commonwealth Cemetery, France |
Please, please volunteer to be a Guide. With fewer than ten guides it is very difficult to provide a roster to open the house each Sunday. This winter has been quite busy with local and overseas visitors. Guiding is not a difficult task, and is an interesting way to spend a Sunday afternoon, for guides as well as visitors. It’s also a good way of reaching the young: we recently had visits from two classes from Matua School and found the children very interested in how people lived in the past. The theme they were studying was change and the contents of the house illustrate that well.
The Society has 132 members of whom ten are on the committee and ten are guides, with four being both committee members and guides. We need more. With more people helping, the roster will be less demanding on the loyal few. All new guides are trained then rostered with experienced guides.
Loss of Members
This year the Society has lost two of its significant members. Jinty Rorke, the well-known historian and former librarian, died after a short illness in February and is missed by those of us who respected her breadth of knowledge of local history. More recently Bryan Teasey died. A great-grandson of Joseph and Kate Brain, Bryan donated some family artefacts to the Society over the years and made generous monetary donations each year.
The Brain Watkins Hall
Our facility here is very useful for small groups to hire at a very reasonable cost. If you have connections with other groups interested in a central city venue please phone Meri Low on 578 4048 for further details.
Forthcoming Events
17 September – first Lecture in “Sons of Empire” series
2 November – Sunday meeting to discuss the Strategic Plan and agree on the subscription for 2015
7 December – the Society’s annual Christmas Luncheon – details available later
1 February 2015 – the Annual General Meeting. Please think about serving on the committee or standing as an officer of the Society.
1 March 2015 – Jazz in the Garden, our annual fundraiser. We passed on all of our unsold books this year to another charity so will start our book stall afresh. So please put aside your surplus books for a good cause – the care and preservation of the Brain Watkins House.
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