Salisbury (Sarum) Probus Club

Commonwealth War Graves Commission  14^th March 2025

On 14^th March Christopher Brown spoke to the Club about the history and work of the Commonwealth Graves Commission.

Inspired by his mother’s concern for a great uncle who had perished in Iraq in 1916 and seeing the lists of the fallen on the Town Memorial in Wimborne Minster, Christopher became interested in where dead service personnel were buried. It led to research into the work of the CWGC and to him becoming a volunteer speaker for the organisation.

He discovered that the Commission cares for headstones and memorials in 23,000 locations worldwide. It was founded in 1916 and supported by 6 Commonwealth Governments – Uk, Canada, Australia, New Zealand India and South Africa. The policy was agreed early in the First World War that repatriation of the dead was impractical. The fallen were at first buried in rough graves, near where they fell. After the war the bodies were collected into Cemeteries and, each grave marked with a standard headstone, whatever the rank of the person interred. This was the first time the dead of Battles were commemorated in any official way; no formal memorials exist for earlier conflicts.

The dead of the Second World War were included, and memorials exist all over the world for the fallen of these battles. Statutes limited and still limit the CWGC to look after memorials of the dead of the two World Wars. Those who died in other conflicts are dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.

Where known each headstone bears basic information about the departed and may include a personal tribute by their family. Where the person is unknown the stone records this fact. Those who died in either conflict but whose remains were never found or identified, are commemorated on memorials, some large, others more modest. All are cared for by the CWGC.

The organisation is always in need of volunteers to help with the work of maintaining graves and spreading information about their work.

Christopher received a warm ovation for a very detailed and carefully prepared talk.

Ron first served as a pilot in Aden; there he trained for many hours on a variety of jet planes. There the British had a presence striving to prevent the ingress of insurgents from surrounding Arab States. Once trained, he joined the squadrons on round the clock duty supporting the British Army. At that time the airport in Aden was one of the busiest in the world. With no modern satellite devices, the pilots had to find targets marked by personnel on the ground who laid day glo strips or created smoke indicators.

Ron remained in Aden for 2 years and then returned to the UK where he spent time as an instructor before progressing to his main role as a test pilot, at first with the United States Navy and then in England at Boscombe Down. The main aim was to make sure that the aircraft produced by designated suppliers matched the claims of those suppliers and, also met the needs of the Military Services.

If a plane was designed to perform in very low temperatures then it was put through icing tests to see it performed satisfactorily. Cold temperatures for instance can cause problems with the hydraulics on an aircraft. Similarly tests were devised to test the performance of aircraft in very hot and very dusty environments.

Obviously a test pilot flying a new design of aircraft with no simulators available to prepare him and only a few hours in which to study the instruction manual, ran risks and often there were unexpected outcomes; noses that suddenly rose or dropped, landing procedures that didn’t quite go as planned. Ron had a few narrow escapes and admits he was lucky.

As well as testing the flight of aircraft the Base at Boscombe Down was responsible for testing ejector seats and conducting trials on missiles to discover the best way to launch them from aircraft like the Jaguar that could be carrying a load as heavy as a World War 2 Lancaster bomber.

Eventually Ron retired, largely unscathed and had time to present talks like the one given to us. It was fascinating and members thanked Ron for giving time to share the obvious enthusiasm he still has for the subject.

 The Great American Songbook

On 9^th May Chris Walker, a musician himself spoke to us about the Great American Songbook which is a loose term covering many American songs of the first half of the 20^th Century. It includes Tin Pan Alley, Broadway Musicals and Theatre; containing some of the greatest and most enduring popular songs ever written.

Chris illustrated his talk by introducing ten lyricists and composers. Some like Cole Porter wrote both lyrics and tunes, others like George and Ira Gershwin or Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer collaborated, one writing the music the other the lyrics.

First we were introduced to the Gershwin brothers who produced “Swanee” and “Rhapsody  in Blue” and Chris concluded by playing us a clip of one of their most delightful songs “I’ve got rhythm.”

Cole Porter was remembered for the famous “I get a kick out of you.” He also wrote a multitude of songs like “Anything Goes,” but, sadly, following an accident in 1937 his later years were marked by decline.

Chris went on to mention other great songwriters and included with each writer a clip of one of his well-known songs. The proof of the success of these writers is that their songs entered the repertoires of singers like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. And their songs live on. Who has not heard of “Come fly with me” a song by Jimmy Van Heusen popularised by Frank Sinatra? or “What a Wonderful World,” one of Louis Armstrong’s greatest hits still heard regularly today.

The music of this era was so great that many of today’s stars like Rod Stewart and Michael Buble have, in recent years, revived public interest in them. The Club was grateful to hear this and very thankful to Chris Walker for giving such a stimulating talk.

Richard Hutley

The New Forest in World War 2.

On 12^th September Marc Heighway, a man who has spent most of his life studying the New Forest in Hampshire spoke to the club about the effects of World War 2 on the area. When we think of the New Forest, we tend to conjure in our minds pictures of unspoilt heathland and unbroken woodland. We never really associate it with military events in the way we associate Salisbury Plain. But during World War 2 the whole forest was requisitioned by the War Office and there is no village which does not have traces of military usage.

The New Forest was an area relatively low in population and testing and training could be carried on with less interference in people’s lives than elsewhere.

So, at Ashley Walk, near Fordingbridge bombs were tested, including Barnes Wallace’s famous bouncing bomb. The Forest Commoners received agreed compensation, and the site was taken over. Remains of a nearby bomb shelter, used to test the destructive blast of ordinance, and craters, now morphed into wildlife ponds, still stand as witnesses to this.

The Forest in the south adjoins the coast and the War Cabinet led by Churchill, greatly feared that this unprotected coast might be an attractive place for Hitler’s invasion. Villages like Beaulieu were equipped with anti-tank blocks and, all along the coast, dragon’s teeth and machine gun emplacements were built. The concrete bases can still be seen today. In Beaulieu itself the Dairy House was adapted to be a gun pill box and the structures built remain.

There is much evidence of air activity still in evidence. At Ipsley cross roads the remains of an Observer post can be seen and there are scattered parts of enemy aircraft shot down all over the Forest.  Special airfields were built primarily for planes bringing in equipment for the D Day invasion and concrete still marks the places.

Add to this the remains of searchlight positions, beach scaffolding, POW camps and a whole host of other war time paraphernalia and we can see what a fascinating place the New Forest is for those interested in its wartime history.

The Myth of Atlantis.”

On 14^th November, Jeff Evans, a freelance journalist and TV historian, gave us a fascinating insight into the way television has interacted with sport over the past century under the title “They think it is all over.”

When BBC Television first began in 1936 transmission was from Alexander Palace just north of London, there was no real place for sport. The idea of filming outside was way beyond the equipment available, as was sending signals from a sports ground back to the base. In 1937 the Corporation was persuaded to cover the tennis tournament at Wimbledon but there were concerns about buildings interfering with the transmission of the signal. In particular, the electronic equipment in a hospital en route caused difficulties. Later that year a football match was broadcast from Arsenal and the next year the Cup Final and Boat Race were covered. At the latter only two cameras were available so most of the race was sound only.

Then came the War and things stood still. In the early post war period the old prewar equipment was still in use and many sports broadcasts were only partially televised. The appointment of Peter Dimmock to take charge of Outside Broadcasts led to huge changes. Better cameras were purchased, more sports events covered, but his biggest success was that he was put in charge of broadcasting the Coronation in 1953. This led to many more people buying television sets. In 1954 Dimmock started “Sportsview”, a Thursday night programme which pulled together the action from several sports in the preceding week. Sport was now firmly on the BBC but it wasn’t until 1958 that live events were introduced by another big personality David Coleman. “Grandstand” on a Saturday afternoon brought news of teams as they played and famously broadcast the results as they came in on a teleprinter.

The launch of ITV in 1955 introduced an element of competition into TV sport. ITV saw itself as the working man’s channel and introduced sports which had not previously been broadcast. As well as football, boxing, horse racing and Rugby League  were among those Eamonn Andrews presented in his Saturday programme “World of Sport.” The racing elements gave betting information and the football results noted the pools significance of relevant matches. The “World of Sport” introduced the practice of sports practitioners and enthusiasts, especially controversial ones, commenting on events covered. Because the BBC still dominated the major sporting events ITV brought in American sports and programmes from other countries.

By 1964 BBC2 had started and there was space on the new channel for “Match of the Day”. And with the advent of colour television the Wimbledon Tournament was one of the first to be covered. In 1969 Pot Black was able to take advantage of the colour environment and the image of snooker was forever changed by showing the balls in colour and by moving games from the smoky, seedy clubs to the Sheffield Crucible Theatre.

And now of course TV coverage of sport has changed yet again with the establishment of digital channels like Sky, channels with more money than their terrestrial rivals. While the BBC now shows less sport than in the past it still retains the “Crown Jewels” like the FA Cup Final and Wimbledon. How long this will last we do not know.

Thank you Jeff for such a detailed and fascinating  talk which this summary hardly does justice to.