Probus/Rotary news

Rotary Club of Linlithgow Grange President John Reid welcomed 24 members to the weekly meeting, a smaller number than usual due to the start of the Easter holiday period. The President’s first duty was to announce the death last week of Past President John Barrett. A founder member, John was the Club’s President for the year 1995/96. At the time of writing no information was available regarding funeral arrangements. President John Reid asked the meeting to stand for a minute’s silence in memory of John. The speaker for the evening was Tom Brown. As another founder member, Tom has spoken to the club on many occasions but this was to be only the second time when his talk was not on a medical subject. The Siege of Leningrad was the title of Tom’s address which was delivered with Tom’s usual thoroughness and aplomb. The siege lasted 872 days covering 3 winters from 1941 to 1944 and was described as the worst siege we know of in modern history. There were many casualties from the fighting but in fact the vast majority died of starvation. Tom illustrated his talk with slides and two or three quotations from his book of reference and ended to a warm round of applause. Ken Mackenzie was asked to give the vote of thanks and began with “Masterly, scholarly and superbly presented” which met with much approval and a further round of applause. The meeting ended with the final toast to Rotary International. Whitburn Probus President Bobby Nowrie welcomed 45 members to this week’s meeting, held as usual in the Hilcroft Hotel. Today’s speaker saw the welcome return of Probus favourites, Fred and Rita Daniels. Before Fred presented the main part of his talk entitled “USA Part 3” he presented a slide show of pictures he had taken during a Probus visit to Hampden Park several months ago, much to the delight of the members who attended. The main part of the talk picked up where Fred and Rita finished their previous talk in the Colorado mountains. This time they covered the section from Colorado Springs to New Mexico and as usual, the talk was full of fantastic photos, in depth background details all presented with Freds usual inimitable style. With still much more to see of their epic 9700 mile car journey, we all await the next installment. The vote of thanks was given by Ediie McLay who thanked Fred and Rita for sharing their experiences with us and providing glimpses of places many of us will never see.