Announcements
45 members present
John Brooks (Chairman) reported that Sylvia Barton had decided to retire from acting as our coffee lady, following her fall at the last meeting. She had been serving us with coffees and teas for 20 years, and the Committee would be considering how best to thank her for her loyal support.
John reminded us that our next meeting would be the AGM – the last at which he would be Chairman.
He said that Trevor Jones had decided not to continue his membership of the Club, because of the pressure of his other commitments. He had however said that he had much appreciated the warmth with which he had been welcomed into the Club.
Mike Hill (Events) said he had lined up two events for us: the St George’s Day lunch, and a possible visit to Ragley Hall. The Ragley Hall visit depended on there being enough interest, and he encouraged members to let him know if they wanted to come along.
John Williams (Welfare) reported that John Train had had a fall at home, and would not be attending for a while. Geoff Agg had dropped a radiator on his foot, and was in some pain, but would be back as soon as he recovered.
Brian Parry (Walks) said that next week’s walk would be from the Pheasant at Toddington. It will be muddy, as the farmer has ploughed one of the fields that the path crosses, but there are onluy two stiles, and the ground is level. (No Flecks)
Speaker
Our speaker was Dr Tim Braine, former Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, who gave us a History of Policing from the Earliest Times.
Tim said that the UK had played a special role in developing the principles of policing that are now widely practised in liberal democracies around the world, and that the history of British policing did not get enough attention – for example in comparison to military history. He took us back to the Saxon times, under Alfred the Great, when each village was responsible for making its own arrangements for law and order, through the development of a more centralised system under the Normans, to the innovations of Henry and John Fielding and Sir Robert Peel in Victorian times which set the foundations for current policing principles and structures.
This was an extremely well-delivered and thoroughly researched talk, covering some 1200 years of history and including some fascinating detail. Did you know that the Sherrif in the Westerns derives his title from the “shire reeve” who was responsible to the King for security in his area during Medieval times. Or that the “posse” he assembles to pursue the black hated outlaw comes from “posse comitatis”, the Latin for the “hue and cry”? Or that “constables of the watch” made arrests by tipping the culprit on the shoulder with a “tipstave”, a staff with a hollow knob at the top into which the arrest warrant would be placed