Lunches
The lunches are held on the third Thursday of each month at 11.30 for 12.30 in the Homestead Court Hotel in Welwyn Garden City. Dress is normally smart casual with a jacket and tie for the men. Expect to get away by 3pm. The three course lunch with coffee costs £28 and includes a starter, meat main course, and a sweet and coffee. An alternative main course “chef’s selection of fish”, may be pre-booked when registering for the lunch.
On arrival for lunch members check in by the hotel reception. Those who have ordered a variant from the menu will receive an envelope containing cards which indicate a diner's choice of alternative for the 'Starter, Main Course and Desert or Cheese and Biscuits’. They should be displayed on their lunch table to help the waiting staff. A cash bar is open for drinks before, and with the meal.
Lunches must be booked no later than the Friday of the week before the lunch. The club has recently introduced an online lunch booking scheme which has made life easier for both lunch attendees, the Lunch Secretary and other committee members.
Links to the online booking forms are emailed to members about one month ahead of each upcoming lunch. Details of the lunches, along with the necessary booking forms are also included in the Newsletter. The club also strongly encourages lunch payment by online bank transfer.
Any Member who is unable to attend after booking is responsible for the cost unless a cancellation is notified by the Friday previous to the booked lunch.
Some individual members reserve seats for themselves and their guests by placing cards on the tables. Whilst this has disadvantages and is less than ideal, nobody has yet come up with a more acceptable idea!
16 May 2024
V.S.O. - Voluntary Service Overseas, Bechuanaland 1964
Peter Carr
Finishing school in 1964, rather surprisingly, Peter found himself in Bechuanaland Protectorate helping the British Administration to run and organise the county’s first democratic election in preparation for it’s coming independence.
This involved helping spread information to local villages in the Southern Tribal area about what Independence meant including the registration of voters and Candidates, followed by Presiding Officer role in the election itself in Okavango Region. Then followed sundry support roles to the Serowe (Central Region) District Commissioner. Finishing with more serious Famine Relief operations from Francistown in the North East.
A HELC Member for some years Peter, a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, started his career as an Industrial Designer at Pye Telecommunications in Cambridge, to work on Mobile, Portable and Fixed Station radio telecommunications products. In 1986 PBCarr Design set up in Harpenden designing for a range of clients, large ones like Racal and Yale, or smaller ones like Scantronic, or ever growing Climax in Taiwan.
20 June 2024
Bomb Disposal
Lucy Lewis
After a brief skill list to set the context of the talk, I explain some of the Sandhurst training and guidance given to female cadets before covering the demolition safety course. I explain one of the key bomb disposal techniques used for Northern Ireland devices and move on to my military police postings in Germany and Northern Ireland including life in the Officers' Mess. Turning to my current role, I explain the benefits of military training when handling large ceremonies and defending freedom of speech at the University of Cambridge.
Lucy Lewis joined the Army on the spur of the moment and after training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst was chosen in 1989 to become the first woman to operate as a Bomb Disposal Officer with the Royal Engineers. She subsequently served with the Royal Military Police in Germany and Northern Ireland, retiring in the rank of Major to start a family. In 2018, Lucy made history for a second time by becoming the first woman to be appointed University Marshal at the University of Cambridge and now leads one of the oldest Constabularies in the world.
