Author: Paul Flint

The idea of a summer pub lunch was introduced back in 1996 by the then president, David Carwardine and has continued without break in the ensuing twenty-eight years.

He had been a director of the Basingstoke fork truck manufacturer Lansing Bagnall and had a famous father who invented the angle poise lamp. As the president he wanted to bring the ladies into a social event for this men only club.

Selecting the venue traditionally became the responsibility of each president and this year involved a group visit to the Bolton Arms in Old Basing. This was the choice of the current president Stephen Thair, a retired solicitor, who also happens to live in Old Basing.

A mixture of members and wives/lady friends totalling thirty-three dined in this fifteenth century, Grade ii listed building that was reopened early this year after going through a significant refurbishment programme. This has brought this hostelry very much into the modern era providing an extensive food offering to suit all tastes and pockets.

Old Basing was the site for the longest siege of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War, where Roundhead met Cavalier during the 23 months of the siege of Basing House. It had been built as a Tudor palace by William Paulet, the 1^st Marquess of Winchester, to rival Hampton Court palace in its size and opulence.

When the House of Stuart was returned to the throne in 1660, King Charles ii returned the lands of Basing to the Paulet family. As a show of gratitude for his loyalty to the Crown, Charles Paulet became the first Duke of Bolton, hence the name of this pub which is still owned by the Bolton family estate.

President Stephen Thair and wife Margaret hosted the event which was held in a private room that just about coped with the numbers. Of the ladies present, four were members of the Ladies’ Probus Club of Basingstoke while it was announced that two new members had joined the men’s club this month. This is a good sign that the club has an attraction for like-minded men.

Due to their early departures there are no photographs of Andrew & Janice Barton or of Paul & Mary Klinger.

Five publications gave us space in their August magazines which was a good result bearing in mind that the Rabbiter, Bramley and Villager do not have an August edition.

Because of the timing differences of when they actually hit the streets the five magazines share reports about the club’s 44^th Annual General meeting or the first meeting of the new Probus year when the Mayor of Basingstoke was our guest of honour.

Basingstoke and Deane’s Mayor, Cllr Dan Putty, was guest of honour at the inaugural meeting of the 45^th year of continuous operation of the Probus Club of Basingstoke.

Newly installed Probus Club President, Stephen Thair, welcomed the mayor who joined the members for lunch and then gave an outline of his background in moving to Basingstoke from his native Mauritius. He worked for the NHS until he retired but became socially active and over 25 years acted as a governor in four schools, he was a JP for 32 years and is the current councillor for the Hatch Warren & Beggarwood ward of the Borough council being elected many times.

It is custom and practice for all mayors to support charities during their year of office. Cllr Putty selected two local good causes, North Hampshire Prostate Support Group, because of his own experiences of this condition, and the Hants & IoW Community Fund, which makes small donations to many deserving cases.

The club made a donation to the mayor’s charity appeal.

Cllr Putty was previously the mayor in 2013 and recalled his visit to the Probus Club when their meetings were then held at Sandford Springs Golf Club at Kingsclere. Shortly afterwards the Probus Club moved to the Test Valley Golf Club near Overton for their business meetings and lunches.

The Probus Club also have a social pub lunch, which includes wives and friends, on the fourth Thursday of most months at the Queen’s College Arms on the Aldermaston Road at Pamber End.

The speaker at this meeting was member David Wickens whose topic was ‘Lord’ George Sanger, who, in his day at the latter part of the 19^th and early 20^th century, was described as Britain’s greatest showman.

Coming from a showman’s family and being born in Newbury, it was his father who gave him the moniker of ‘Gentleman George’ due to his sartorial elegance. Following a fall as a trapeze artist he started out as an independent travelling showman. He progressed over the years from having peep shows and magic lanterns, being a magician, animal trainer, circus proprietor with elephants, camels, horses and acrobats and married a lady who was a lion tamer.

He progressed into permanent building in London while continuing with travelling circuses and had many European tours and partook in several royal parades in support of Queen Victoria. He built premises in Margate, Kent, which ran for many years only being demolished in 1961 to make way for the Dreamworld entertainment complex which exists to this day.

Taking legal action against Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West circus he noticed the judge referred to his opponent as the Honourable William Cody so he decided that he would elevate himself and became ‘Lord’ George Sanger. He lost the case.

In 1903 he presented a statue of Queen Victoria to the town of Newbury insisting it be positioned in the marketplace over the spot where his father once had a stall. Today the statue is positioned in the town’s Victoria Park.

He sold up in 1905 and retired to Park Farm in East Finchley where, in 1911, he was murdered with an axe by a disgruntled employee, Herbert Cooper, over suspicion that he had stolen fifty pounds. There was a well-publicised manhunt with the miscreant committing suicide on the railway. However later investigations indicated a different scenario of an altercation between two former employees that George Sanger tried to intervene, slipping and falling, killing himself in the process.

In his will, written two years earlier, George Sanger left fifty pounds to the same Herbert Cooper.

The funeral of ‘Lord’ George Sanger became a public spectacle, initially in London and again in Margate with a large procession through the town to be buried next to his late wife.

From humble beginning and with no education George Sanger had made himself probably the most successful showman ever seen in this country, the like of which will probably never be seen again.

An excellent month for coverage in our local media including appearing in the Basingstoke Gazette and within the printed edition of the Basinga and also in the Loddon Valley Link magazines.

Because of calendar variations when some are published means that the Kempshott Kourier and the CommunityAd magazine for Oakley, Overton & Kempshott each carried the trip to Winchester.

With 45 years of continuous operation the Probus Club of Basingstoke has just held its 44^th Annual General meeting.

It was formed in 1979 under the sponsorship of the Rotary Club of Basingstoke to provide fellowship for retired professional and businessmen. Today membership consists of men with a wide array of backgrounds from ex- military, legal, scientific, medical, civil engineering, insurance, local government, civil service, car dealerships, small business owners and managers with international experience.

The newly appointed president, Stephen Thair, is a retired solicitor and the vice president, John Swain, was a bank note design manager. Secretary Andrew Barton worked five years at the EC in Brussels followed by an international oil company, Treasurer, Dr Jeff Grover was a nuclear scientist, Publicity officer, Paul Flint had a design and printing business in Basingstoke, and Outings Organiser, Chris Perkins MVO, retired from the RAF with the rank of Squadron Leader.

The club’s officers are completed with Michael Luck as Programme Secretary (speaker finder) who was a consultant specialising in credit card payment systems and Dr Nick Waring, a retired GP, is the Welfare officer. Paul Miller will provide specialist support in some circumstances.

When the Equalities Act came into force, it gave protected interest groups freedom to choose their rules about membership. There were some Probus Clubs across the UK that decided to accept women members, however, this was not the case in Basingstoke. Although the decision reached was to remain purely as a club for retired men, this was assisted by having a well-established Ladies’ Probus club in Basingstoke, that also decided to remain true to their founders and not to admit men to their ranks.

That is not to say that the genders remain separate as most months there are occasions when they meet up or simply that the wives of members join their menfolk for meals and outings to interesting places.

The Probus Club of Basingstoke have their business meetings at the Test Valley Golf club followed by lunch. Their July meeting has as their speaker, member David Wickens, whose subject is ‘Lord’ George Sanger – who, in his day, was described as Britain’s greatest showman. August sees their annual Summer Pub lunch which includes their ladies, due to take place at the Bolton Arms in Old Basing.

Grouping together the visit to Winchester Theatre Royal and Winchester College ensured that we had good coverage in most of the local magazines. The Link (Oakley & surrounds) did not feature us and at the time of publishing this report I have not seen the June edition of the Loddon Valley Link (Sherfield) but they are reluctant to carry our reports.

You will see that the Kempshott Kourier, continuing to be two weeks late, is their May edition where they gave a good deal of space for the S.O.E. training at Beaulieu. Likewise, the CommunityAd magazine for Overton, Oakley & Kempshott being behind our schedule also gave good coverage to the Beaulieu report.

The annual Spring Ladies’ lunch was held at the Test Valley Golf club where together with their wives/lady friends the members enjoyed a splendid lunch. The president of the Basingstoke Ladies’ Probus club, Val McKenzie, was the guest of Honour and felt at home as several of the wives/partners are themselves members of Ladies’ Probus. This is their thirtieth year of continuous operation, and they meet monthly in the restaurant at BCOT.

A reciprocal arrangement will take place at the next meeting of the Ladies’ Probus club as the men’s president, Dr Jeff Grover, will attend as their guest of honour. This will be his final representation as president as his period of office concludes at the club’s 44^th AGM which takes place in June.

Sixteen members of the Probus Club of Basingstoke met up in Winchester for a busy full day’s excursion. The itinerary included a backstage visit to the Theatre Royal in the morning followed by a conducted tour of Winchester College after lunch.

We were hosted by two extremely knowledgeable guides and given an extensive insight into the theatre’s history whilst comfortably seated in the front stalls of the auditorium.

From its initial conversion from a Market Hotel in the 1850s, they appraised us of the many subsequent developments that took place, from the days of cine-variety, live theatre and through to modern day ‘live streaming’ technology of films or other national performances.

Afterwards we were split into two parties and given a tour that explored all levels of the theatre, from the stage, 400-seat auditorium and dressing rooms to climbing the ‘fly tower’ used to hang lighting, scenery and stage effects during a show.

As arranged we were then met after lunch by our experienced and professional guide at the Porter’s Lodge of Winchester College, the alma mater of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. Founded in 1382 by the Bishop of Winchester, William of Wykeham, as a feeder school to New College, Oxford it set vigorous academic standards which are being upheld today. Previous pupils are known as “Old Wykehamists” and only in 2022 were girls admitted but then only in the sixth form.

In the decade up to the academic year 2022/23 they had impressive results in ‘A’ levels with 33% gaining a place at Oxford or Cambridge. There are over 300 staff with only 740 pupils.

The tour focussed on College’s historic architecture. With extensive grounds of over 250 acres there are 94 listed buildings with the first, the Chamber Court being completed in 1384. There are eleven boarding houses each with a housemaster who sometimes set their own entrance examinations. The guided tour included visiting the 1394 Gothic chapel, the College Hall refectory, the Cloisters and the 17^th century red brick Schoolroom.

The report about S.O.E. training at Beaulieu was well received in the local magazines with the Villager giving over a full page (which is why their cover is a separate illustration).

The CommunityAd magazine for Overton, Oakley & Kempshott always appears late in the month which is why their double page spread is about Gilbert & Sullivan, as is the perennially late Kempshott Kourier which also features Gilbert & Sullivan.

Visitors to the national Car Museum at Beaulieu, in the New Forest, may have spotted a building close to Palace House which is a museum about the training that took place in WW2 for the S.O.E. Inside is an exhibition about the Secret Army.

The Special Operations Executive was the subject of the latest talk at the Probus Club of Basingstoke by speaker Nick Saunders who is a part time archivist at the Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum in Winchester.

The S.O.E. was set up in 1940 on instructions of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to “Set Europe ablaze” by conducting espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German occupied Europe and to aid local resistance movements.

It was not an easy formation as sections of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) refused to share facilities in signals training and other sections of the Military top brass also denied the use of their training places. While the S.O.E. had its headquarters in Baker Street, London, opposite the fictional address of Sherlock Holmes, all training took place around the country.

The organisation generated different unofficial names, The Baker Street Irregulars, Churchill’s Secret Army, Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare with the most apt, Stately ‘omes of England, as many country houses and private estates were requisitioned. Several such large properties existed around the Beaulieu estate and served as training bases specialising in the dark arts of guerrilla activities.

For security reasons nationalities were kept apart during their time in the S.O.E. to ensure that if captured they would not be able to disclose any knowledge of comparative secret operations in other countries. So effective was this compartmentalising of nationalities that in 1942 five governments in exile, who suggested setting up some form of training for agents to be dropped into occupied countries, were surprised to learn that the S.O.E. had been in operation for two years.

Silent killing, parachute skills, radios, Morse code and weapons training were the main courses. Burglary skills were taught as agents would need to access occupied buildings with tests being given of breaking into Palace House and stealing a bank cheque but without leaving any signs of entry.

Suitcase Radio and Secret Weapons for use by agents

It was imperative that their agents had a good knowledge of a particular country and that their language skills were sufficient to pass as a native. Although 13,000 agents underwent training, which included 3,000 at the Beaulieu Finishing School, there were many women who undertook the same training and had volunteered to assume roles in German occupied countries.

The Germans knew about what was happening at Beaulieu and named it The Gangster School. Among the 175 staff at Beaulieu were Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, who later, unearthed as Soviet spies, absconded to Russia. They taught mind games on how to undermine German morale.

The agents dropped into occupied countries should not be compared to the fictional BBC TV series ‘Allo ‘Allo! which was a wartime sitcom about the French Resistance with the farcical events set around a café, as many agents were captured, tortured and executed.