What's New

Events in the Next Month

The following events have been organised for the next month or so:

• A policeman's lot...can be quite an interesting one!, Norfolk Arms Hotel, Thursday 24 May.

For more details of these events, including booking arrangements, and a list of events further into the future, please click here.

Calm Before Coffee John Munro, one of our members, has written an autobiography entitled Calm Before Coffee: A Child's Voyage from Rejection to Resolution.  Of the book, John says: 'Why write an autobiography?  For one's grandchildren and their children - but I have no children, only God-children.  No, I was urged to go into print as it may help those many others who've had a bumpy start in life to get over their grudges.  It took me 77 years to really do that; I just hope this little book will help some to get free faster, and realise that we all have a duty to forgive our parents.  As Tutu said, 'There is no future without forgiveness'.' The book costs £7.50, and is available from The Ferret Bookshop at the top of Arundel High Street.  John is happy to sign copies of the book at Probus meetings.

The Decca Legacy Long-standing member, Ron Burr, is the primary author of a book called The Decca Legacy that records the radar engineering achievements from the earliest days of Decca Radar in 1949 to BAE Systems in 2010. The book can be read on-line.  Please click here to download and read the book. The following is an extract from the introduction to the book:

'The driving force and primary author of this book, Ron Burr, has entered his tenth decade.  He worked in radar during the Second World War, subsequently joining Decca Radar, where he was Chief Engineer at the time Decca set up the radar design and manufacturing facility on the Isle of Wight.  Having seen at first hand the enormous achievements attained and the advances in technology made during his lifetime, he strongly believes that an historical account should exist of the systems designed and manufactured by the company.  The record would include the impact of advances in technology and would trace the changes in corporate structures and locations.

'It is also a landmark time for publishing this book.  Some seventy years since the concept of radar was established, sixty years since Decca Radar was registered as a company to design and manufacture radar systems (1949-2009) and fifty years since the factory at Cowes, Isle of Wight, was established.'