Henley Probus Club

THE 489th meeting of Henley Probus Club was held at Badgemore Park Golf Club on September 12.

The chairman briefed the club on the social events that were in the planning stage to include an outing to the Mill at Sonning in January and a visit to the Medical History Museum at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in March.

The treasurer briefed that the deposit had been paid for the club’s Christmas luncheon which will be held at Badgemore Park.

This month’s guest speaker was Martin Beek, an accomplished artist and art historian who teaches autistic children and lectures in both this country and in America.

Martin called his talk “The River Thames on canvas” and proceeded to give an absolutely fascinating illustrated account of a trip down the river via different artists. He started at the source of the river and worked all the way down to the estuary with paintings by 28 different artists.

His illustrations covered the timeframe from the early 1700s right up to the modern day.

The paintings he showed were of famous places and happenings along the river including Wallingford, Nuneham Courtenay, Oxford, Goring and Streatley, Mapledurham, Shiplake Lock, Henley, Cliveden, Boulter’s Lock, Cookham, Richmond, Chiswick and Rotherhithe and Chatham.

There were paintings of the Henley Royal Regatta, the Great Fire of London, the burning of the Lords and House of Commons and Her Majesty’s Queen Elizabeth’s 60th jubilee celebrations.

Some of the famous artists and their works included Canaletto, Claude Monet,
J M W Turner, John Constable, Joshua Reynolds, David Hockney and James Tissot as well as Stanley Spencer who one of our members had known personally from their childhoods in Cookham.

Club members gave Martin a rousing round of applause and member Wally Camp gave a formal thank- you on behalf of the club.

The meeting closed and members, along with our guest speaker, enjoyed a delicious two-course lunch provided by the Badgemore staff.

Henley Probus Club meets at Badgemore Park on the second Tuesday of each month, starting with an informal gathering of members (plus visitors) for a discussion and coffee, with the formal meeting commencing at 11.30am followed by a lunch.

If anyone is interested in joining the club, please call membership secretary Roger Griffiths on (01491) 575137 or email him on
regriffiths44@gmail.com

For more information, visit http://henleymens
probus.org.uk

Roger Roberts