News

President of the Probus Club of Basingstoke 2010/11

The funeral took place today of Richard Stettner at St Bede’s Catholic Church in Popley.

There were around 100 people in attendance.

Supporting the family were members of his old employer, Wiggins Teape, where Richard had been in export sales working for the special products paper mill at Stonehouse near Aberdeen using his language skills in the Eastern Bloc.

Test Valley Golf Club where Richard was a member and we learned at the funeral that he played regularly with his son Damon.

And the Probus Club of Basingstoke where the following members represented our club:
President Stephen Thair, Tony & Lesley Atchison, John Bristow, Paul Flint & Janet Fagg, Jeff Grover, Rob Hopkins, Dave Kitson, Michael Luck, Alan & Liliane May, Paul Miller, John Terry and Nick Waring.

There was a subsequent cremation for close family only followed by a celebration of Richard’s life held at the Test Valley Golf Club to which several Probus members also attended.

With the usual meeting in August being replaced with the Summer Pub lunch which itself was pushed back until the end of August meant that there was nothing to report to the local magazines in time to meet their copy dates for their September editions.

Consequently the only publications that carried anything about our Probus Club were the Kempshott Kourier and the CommunityAd magazine for Overton. Oakley & Kempshott with their Summer/Autumn Issue 44. Both these publications carried our earlier report about the visit of the mayor to our July meeting.

Barton’s Mill in Old Basing was the picturesque venue this year for the Probus Club Summer Pub Lunch that has been an annual event since its inception in 1996.

A party of twenty eight consisting of members and wives/lady friends was hosted by President Stephen and Margaret Thair. Dining almost al fresco, guests were seated under a large tent like structure no doubt to keep diners cool in this summer’s heat but on our visit proved to be a good shelter against the intermittent but desperately need rain.

Weather concerns aside, our dining steward, Paul Klinger, had worked closely with the pub’s management which ensured everyone received the meal selection of their choice.

August means only two magazines were available for our publicity notice which were the Kempshott Kourier and the Link magazine covering Oakley and surrounding villages. The Mayor’s Facebook page featured his visit to our July meeting, the Basinga Extra ran a previous report about our new Executive Committee and a rare appearance in the Basingstoke Gazette completed this quiet month.

Double Chains of Office with Mayoral Visit to Probus Club

The Worshipful, The Mayor of Basingstoke & Deane, Cllr Colin Phillimore, was the guest of honour at the first meeting of the new season of the Probus Club of Basingstoke, which is entering its 46^th year of activity.

Before lunch the mayor outlined his background, growing up in Whitchurch and attending Basingstoke’s Queen Mary’s grammar school, his first job at aged 16 at the Basingstoke headquarters of AA on £7 per week and then forty years in accountancy in the motor trade.

Cllr Phillimore has been the ward councillor for Whitchurch for ten years and has nominated the Whitchurch Community swimming pool as one of his mayoral charities, even though a non-swimmer, and St Michael’s Hospice, that needs £15,000 a day to cover its costs.

The Probus Club was pleased to make a donation towards the mayor’s charity appeal.

The other guest at this meeting was speaker Jackie Dimmock who reminisced about her lengthy career as a WPC in the Hampshire Police Force. She gave many examples of her experiences, some serious, others amusing, in a varying service in Scenes of Crime, working with Children’s Services and for many years as a Schools’ Liaison officer.

The Probus Club of Basingstoke is a club for retired men who had some management experience in the professions or business, hence the acronym Probus. Interested? Then see www.probusbasingstoke.club for more information or phone their secretary Andrew Barton for an informal chat on 07814 937202.

The appointment of the new committee of the Probus Club of Basingstoke was covered by the usual supporting magazines around Basingstoke. The exception was the Loddon Valley Link in Sherfield on Loddon and I failed to see if the Basingstoke Gazette carried our report.

The Bramley magazine also carried a separate report about the funeral of Fred Locke and used part of our photograph when Fred was installed as President in 2016.

This took place at the Church of St James, Bramley from 1.45 pm following on from a family only cremation. This was a service of remembrance that was attended by 101 people that illustrated how well Fred was known and liked in the village.

Mention was made about Fred’s involvement in the Probus Club and how proud he was to be the president in 2016/17.

Probus members attending were Stephen Thair, Paul Flint & Janet Fagg, Michael & Pam Luck, Alex & Sarah Marianos, Ian & Sandra Nicholson, Chris Perkins, Geoff & Elizabeth Twine, Nick Waring, and Richard Wood.

Probus Publicity for June 2025

We have received positive feedback from all local magazines that receive our reports, with the exception of the Loddon Valley Link from Sherfield. A rarity was the Basingstoke Gazette carrying our report.

Otherwise, good coverage perhaps because of the two presidents on show which will be welcomed by the Ladies’ Probus Club.

The Basinga runs a month late with our reports.