Club News
April Lunch
Chairman, Andrew Carver, welcomed 22 members, Companion Mark Malwah and our guest speaker Peter Stammers. £46 was raised for the Chairman’s Charity, Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The raffle raised £28.
Open Meeting today – Welcome to wives, partners and guests.
Birthdays in May:
Keith Brooham, David Holmes, Peter Mills, Cyril Ranasinghe
Outings:
Visit to Titsey Place near Oxted, Wednesday 14th May – contact Terry Ribbens on tribbs42@gmail.com
Speaker today:
By popular demand, Jon Fox on ‘Pantomime’.
5th June 2025:
Andy Richardson ‘The Aviation Hall of Fame’.
Welfare Officer:
Please contact Tony Farrell if anyone knows of a member in difficulty. tonyfarrell1953@gmail.comLunch changes by 10.30am the prior Tuesday to chris@moniz.co.uk T: 020 8660 6063. Please email vincent@fosdike.com with articles for the Newsletter.
April Guest Speaker: Peter Stammers
‘How did World War 2 end in Europe?’
The Club welcomed Peter for an anticipated return visit on an historical theme which, this time, especially resonated with a number of members who were either born during the 1940s, or at least can recall the direct aftermath of the war. Peter strongly recommended further reading on this topic since his talk, (and consequently this brief resumé), can only hint at the atmosphere and various military tactics as the war was nearing the end.
Naturally, there was much confusion with ad hoc decision making by the three main war leaders, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, as well as by their respective generals. Basically, Hitler and his regime, had been arguing for a long time that their country had not been defeated at the end of the Great War. The three main participating countries in the European theatre of the second world war, Britain, the US and USSR (whilst being allies), had very different agendas; Britain running a declining empire, the USA and the USSR being relatively young countries, the former with capitalist underpinnings, and the USSR with a communist ideology.
It transpired that during the final period of the war, Göring and Himmler had secretly communicated with the Allies but when found out, were then cut off by Hitler. It appears that there were disagreements not only within different allied countries themselves but also within their respective command structures. As an illustration, Dwight Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery, whilst having the same military rank, had different rank titles which caused a degree of confusion. It transpires that Montgomery had a vital role in activating the surrender of the Germans, very much on his own terms.
The Nazi generals had thought that they could do a deal with the Allies, however the terms of surrender were dictated to in various ways. For example, when the German generals were taken to Montgomery, he asked them who they were and what they wanted. The generals were kept waiting on various occasions prior to surrender and were threatened with having to surrender directly to the Russians who would have treated them as criminals rather than prisoners of war (probably resulting in certain death). In one instance, German soldiers were allowed to keep their weapons in order to keep law and order, and Nazi soldiers and Canadian soldiers at one point met each other on a roadside each heading in different directions! Of course, it must also must not be overlooked that the Canadian soldiers certainly had a significant impact on the war ending. The surrender was signed on the 9th May 1945 but that was not the end of the story. Approximately eleven million people by this time had been displaced in Europe, many having been used as slaves and, in fact, detention camps were still in being until 1952. Of course, the end of World War 2 was the beginning of the Cold War.
David Edward Garner: 1938–2025
Dave was born in Croydon in 1938. The family lived in a beautiful Victorian House, later demolished for a block of flats. He built intricate Meccano models for which he won many competitions.
Dave’s father’s career was in the army. He served in Algiers where the family joined him in 1946 and then, ten years later, moved to Singapore. Dave joined the RAF, discovered a passion for electronics which led to a career in electrical engineering. Dave loved jazz and played drum with a band called the Metronomes. He often hosted lively Drum sessions at Cranleigh, not always to the delight of the family.
Dave met Deanna in Cheam village where they both worked, but Deanna had to wait four years while Dave finished his engineering exams. Dave’s engineering career took him all over the world including two years working on a dam project in Lesotho – an adventure they both cherished. Mishaps were a commonplace – falling scaffolding through the windscreen – falling off a loft latter down the stairs while carrying a punch bowl (which stayed intact). The punch bowl was for the legendary New Year’s Eve party with Deanna’s fantastic spread of food, laughter, and Dave’s ‘clap and wiggle’ dance.
Dave’s children, Gemma, Nikki and Rob, were brought up in Sutton. They have fond memories of picking elderberries in Banstead Woods to complement their father’s experiments in home brewing. Bubbling bottles in the kitchen, mysterious tubes and the occasional minor explosion. Must have been good stuff because their dog Kizzy suffered a hangover. Their garden in Meadow Road, thanks to Deanna, was filled with colourful flowers, vegetables and fruit. Dave loved playing tennis, badminton and cricket. He played tennis and badminton every week without fail. His children joked that it was a cover for a trip to the pub, but it was probably both.Dave joined Coulsdon Probus in October 2011 joining his fellow Suttoners. They had researched several clubs and decided Coulsdon was the best. Dave was an active member of Probus. He looked forward to our meetings and in particular the social events with his wife Deanna. He brought his New Zealand son-in-law to one meeting. Even when very ill he still loved to hear of our activities. We will all miss his sense of humour and his laughter.
An Unexpected Celebrity by James Dearlove
My late mother was born in Switzerland in 1933 and as children I, and my family, were fortunate enough to visit relations in the country mainly during the Christmas holidays, which included some skiing.
I have worked out that, the day in question was in the month of January in 1975. We were on a return flight to the UK following a holiday staying with my grandparents. My youngest sister would have been just about two years old (since her birthday is in January), and by this time she had learned to walk at some speed, and like most youngsters was full of energy and was generally rather restless that day. My family were seated fairly close to the front of the plane and we thought it a good idea for her to stretch her legs in the aisle for a minute or so.
In the blink of an eye, she suddenly disappeared. A fellow passenger kindly pointed towards the front of the plane where a curtain was segregating we economy fare passengers and those in first class. My mother, accordingly, followed the trail and also disappeared behind the curtain and for quite some time! She then returned hand in hand with my little sister and told me that she had found my young sibling in deep conversation with an elderly gentleman sitting in first class. She then asked me to guess who the passenger was that they had been speaking to? I could only assume that the gent was an elderly relation or acquaintance, but I just couldn’t get the right answer after several attempts… “Well, it was Charlie Chaplin!”, my mother exclaimed.
Indeed, it was he, since we subsequently met him and his wife Oona O’Neill in the luggage reclaim sector of the airport. My mother, having loved his films, had immediately recognised him on the flight.
I believe that Charlie Chaplin had moved to Switzerland in 1952 after some controversy living in the USA and that he and Oona had married in 1943.
The purpose of the visit was to receive his knighthood. They were called Mr and Mrs Chaplin on the day of our encounter and returned home as Sir Charles and Lady Chaplin.
The Pulpit by Vincent Fosdike
Conservation is quite an old idea and no doubt received something of a boost from the waste evidenced by the second world war and the effect that had on those who suffered directly from it.
In the cobbled yard of my Victorian school there stood a series of huts of that period, possibly originally stables or storage for agricultural machinery of the period. The main building was constructed as an orphanage for daughters of officers killed in the Crimean war. It carries with it the gloom of its history and today is open to the public with contemporary photographs of some of its long-gone inmates on the walls.
In the second world war it was an interrogation centre for those suspected of spying and featured in the T.V. Series “Spy Catcher” some years ago. Yes it certainly had a history.
Paradoxically we called it Colditz, its architecture was certainly similar. On Friday afternoons I would be incarcerated in one of the huts for two hours to serve out my time before being released for the weekend. Officially I was doing woodwork. However after the first term our “firm but fair” Lancastrian teacher declared that I was not deserving of actual wood. I had had my chance and the London County Council should not be asked to condemn any more good trees to my handywork. I was designated glue pot monitor! Turn it on to heat up at two o-clock and off without fail at four o-clock so as not to burn down the school over the weekend. Other tasks were not on offer.
Normally once work had commenced and planes, saws and drills were singing their songs, our teacher would work on his own project which included some restoration work on the Victorian Pulpit from the chapel. It was a sombre item quite in keeping with the institution and I had been told that I was to prepare to read a lesson from it at the end of the summer term. When mounted it stood high over the fidgety congregation of scholastic inmates whom I was expected to inspire with religious fervour by giving a reading. I no more wanted to be a Vicar than a Carpenter!
The Pulpit was well on the way to resurrection from its somewhat tired post war state. Apart from “finishing”, it really only needed a small triangular insert on one of the uprights to fill a missing piece of the original wood. This was a slightly challenging job even for “sir”. The timber must be blended and aligned perfectly to satisfy our Headmaster (M.A.Cantab) who would check this when it was back in the chapel, not in the workshop! I only discovered that “Cantab.” was not short for the Cathedral town in Kent some years after I failed my “O”level English again. At least we were led by a distinguished scholar with a beady eye and a black gown. whom I suspect did not speak to members of his technical staff unnecessarily.
Apart from turning off the glue pot I had to sweep up and gather the left-over chips from the floor.
We did not at all dislike each other. Between “Sir” and I, there was a kind of permanent Christmas truce and the day would end with the sense that eventually it would be over for all time. Perhaps I would be just a little sad.
Going about my humble gathering task I spotted a piece of wood that seemed made for the completion of the masterpiece dominating the woodwork shop. Surreptitiously I palmed it, waited for my moment when unobserved I tried it for size. Amazingly it was all but a perfect fit when inserted. This was my moment to be recognised as a worthy member of the class, indeed today I would be a saviour of the planet. Proudly I asked “Sir” to come and see it in situ.
“Ehee Lad perhaps thee hast an eye after all”, he almost glowed with delight.
I went on to read the lesson from that pulpit, white with apprehension at standing so high and wondering what on earth I was doing there.
The school has no honour board and few people know of its history, its headmaster, or its carpentry teacher let alone my part in it, but that fragment of wood can still be found there today and I pause if I visit it and sense the slow relentless march of time now 60 years on from those Friday afternoons.