ANNALS OF THE PROBUS CLUB OF LUDLOW 2024
23rd January 2024 THE OCCUPATION OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.
Dr Mark Baldwin
The Channel Islands are an internally governing British Crown Dependencies. With a history of being invaded with evidence of defensive structures from Roman times. The British built many, including a huge naval base on Alderney.
In 1940 they were declared ‘open’ meaning there would be no armed resistance and in June 30 000 Islanders emigrated to mainland Britain. Only Sark Islanders remained. In July the Germans invaded and they were occupied until 8th May 1945,
Initially, German propaganda showed that life carried on normally under occupation, using photos in the papers to infer what it could be like in mainland Britain.
Hitler feared that Britain would try to retake them and ordered they become an impregnable fortress as part of the Atlantic wall.
Dr Baldwin showed what the defensive vertical sea walls looked like with a range of formidable gun emplacements, many of which are visible today. They provided accommodation gun crews with sleeping quarters, cooking facilities, water supply and air conditioning. Cleverly camouflaged to avoid being spotted from the air.
An underground ammunition store built into solid rock was later converted to the Jersey War Hospital. Today, the Jersey Turbot Fish Farm was originally an underground bunker.
Labourers were brought in to build the bunkers. They were severely mistreated and lived in four camps on Alderney and several thousand died. There are Memorial Plaques commemorating all of nationalities involved on the Islands.
Armed resistance was futile because there was nowhere safe to hide. Generally, the Islanders showed great resilience to living under difficult circumstances. Collaboration left a bitter legacy.
After D Day they were blockaded for 11 months. A Red Cross ship made 6 visits to bring in half a million food parcels, but it was a hard time for the population.
Martin Thomas
6th February 2024 ‘Nelly and her sailor from Oz’
Tony Paulden
From the start of Tony’s true WW2 story, there was a hint of intrigue – and so it proved.
In WW1 the Royal Flying Corps had established a base in St Omer, northern France using initially basic flying machines, with their Engine Repair Shops at Pont de l’Arche, eventually employing up to 5,000 personnel – including 500 women - and vastly outnumbering the town’s indigenous population. It was here that Englishman Albert Victor Bester met French girl Andree Lavoisey whom he married in 1917, and the next year a baby girl, Nelly, was born. Soon after the War’s end they returned to Colchester, eventually settling in Richmond in 1940 and rearranging the family surname to Bestre - possibly to sound more French and less German. During the Blitz, Nelly (full name: Jeanne Emilienne Nelly) drove an ambulance but after the Blitz ended had “celebrated” too much and became pregnant in May 1941 by a Frenchman. Nelly was eventually allowed back into the family home after having lived apart in disgrace. Her child, however, was not accepted and the young was placed for adoption at birth and was age of just 4 months. Nelly went on to work as a wartime de-coder for the WAAF at Bletchley Park.
We now move to Sydney, where at the age of 13(!) a certain Brian Mahoney McFarlane is sent to join the Royal Australian Naval College - also serving on HMS Hood - before returning to the RAN in 1939. During WW2 Mediterranean operations his ship is bombed, and he is flown to Britain via Nigeria, Lisbon and Eire on a well-worn circuitous civilian air route used throughout WW2. Brian arrives in Britain in September 1942. So, he and Nelly now both find themselves in the UK. Brian gets posted to Scotland as part of the ‘X’-craft mini-sub flotilla and becomes captain of ‘X-8’ on the German battleship ‘Tirpitz’ raid. There is no record of how Brian and Nelly came to meet each other, but they married in 1943 - before Brian is posted back again to Scotland. Tragically Brian is killed when the ‘X-22’ craft he is aboard is lost during terrible weather in the Pentland Firth, on 7 February 1944. We also learned Nelly’s family members ended up in German concentration camps and, disillusioned with Britain, she returns to France, where she marries a Frenchman – Paul Delamare - with whom she has a further child, this time a daughter.
It was at this point that Tony concluded with his big ‘reveal’ - a recent photograph of him standing tall - and clearly showing that Nelly’s first-born in February 1942 was indeed none other than himself! Tony’s biological mother was Nelly.
A truly tangled, but very moving personal tale...
Paul Hayward
20th February 2024 Artificial Intelligence
Paul Serrell-Cooke & Frances Lloyd
Artificial intelligence can be loosely described as the ability of a machine to do what an intelligent person can do. From around 1900 to 1950 it existed largely in, and was driven by, Science fiction. Development occurred, slowly at first, but accelerated rapidly in the Covid epidemic, and now 75% of successful companies credit AI with being critical to their success.
Intelligence comprises several components, some of which AI excels in. It can read research papers, picking out patterns and formulating general hypotheses which makes it invaluable in medicine in areas such as drug development, genetic information, blood test analysis, scanning etc. It is now used in education and such applications as driverless vehicles.
AI can evolve but its success in many areas depends on the amount and quality of data fed in. Legislation in some countries is preventing full use of data. This may not be a bad thing. In 1951 Alan Turing warned that AI success would mean the end of human control over our future.
The risks associated with AI are considerable. Many jobs will disappear, possibly leading to great social unrest. The many ethical concerns include transparency, data privacy and security, fallibility of systems, lack of creativity and empathy, lack of free market competition due to cost and complexity and loss of basic human skills due to reliance on machines. “False news” attributed to world leaders via AI images is difficult to counter. Military development of AI is now considerable but there is no international treaty to restrict its use.
AI Artificial Intelligence or Alien Intelligence?
Jim Oakley
5th March 2024 The Curse of Captain Blood
Mike Read
Mike’s talk was about its author Rafael Sabatini.
Born 29th April 1875 in Italy to an English mother Anna (from Liverpool) and Italian father Vincenzo both well-known opera singers in Europe.
From the age of two to seven he lived with his maternal grandfather in Liverpool. His parents opened a singing school in Porto when he was seven where he joined them. Speaking English and Italian he learnt Portuguese and was knighted by the King of Portugal.
When the family relocated to Italy Rafael was sent to school in Switzerland adding French and German to his linguistic skills.
At seventeen he returned to his grandparents, working as an interpreter. Writing short stories was his hobby which by the age of twenty-four he sold to national magazines.
His first novel was published in 1902, two more followed by 1905 when he married Ruth Goad Dixon and moved to London to further his career writing.
Their son Rafael-Anglo was born in 1909. In 1914 he became British Citizen and worked for British Intelligence during WW1.
After he returned to writing, was moderately. successful, producing a book year. Everything changed in 1921 with the publication of Scaramouch which was an international success. Captain Blood the next year was turned into plays and films.
They moved to Gloucestershire in 1927 where Sabatini’s wife and son were involved in a car smash near their rented home, he found them both lying in the road, Ruth recovered but their son succumbed to his injuries. The marriage did not survive this dreadful blow and they were divorced in 1931.
Later that year he moved from London to Clifford near Hay-on-Wye. In 1935 marrieds his former sister-in-law the sculptor Christine Dixon and continues to write.
Then tragedy struck again in 1940 when Christine’s son Lancelot Steele Dixon, an RAF pilot, flew over the house, losing control, spiralled into an adjacent field and was killed instantly in front of them. Christine was traumatised by the event, but she created a sculpture and memorial garden to her son.
Since school in Switzerland, he frequently returned to indulge his passions of fishing, reading and skiing where in the alpine village of Adelboden he passed away on the 13th February 1950.
Clayton Lee
Following Mike's talk we were told all about Mary's Meals
Mary’s Meals
Hannah Moore
Hannah from the charity Mary’s Meals explained there are 67 million children at in school worldwide.
In many cases this is because they don’t have enough food to eat
She explained that two brothers Magnus and Fergus sitting in a pub in Dalmally discussing the Bosnia war decided to ask local people to donate aid which they then took to Bosnia. When they returned home to their surprise donation were still coming I so the idea of a charity was born.
Magnus visited Malawi during a famine he encountered a mother dying from Aids but still trying to provide for her children. He asked her son what his dreams were,rr5 to which he replied ‘I want to have enough food to eat and go to school one day’.
This was the start with the donation’s received food was provided and with the help of the local people started to provide daily lunches for children at school.
Since that humble being the charity is currently involved in eighteen countries around the world.
For more information about the charities work and donations please go to: marysmeals.org.uk
19 March 2024 Debate on Artificial Intelligence
Proposal: On balance, Artificial Intelligence is a power for good
Chairman Tony Paulden introduced Tony Martyr & Kit Smith for and Bernard North & Paul Serrell-Cooke against the motion.
Tony Martyr in his proposal gave a brief definition of the technology and observed that to deal with an ever increasing complexity and over population of the modern world AI was a necessary tool since it was increasingly impossible for humans to handle the volume of data we needed to control society. He observed that ‘those who fear the technology in reality fear our behaviour and potential malevolence’ and that in the current month the world’s first AI legislation came into force withing the EU.
In opposing Bernard drew attention to the global nature of the technology enabling anyone, anywhere, to have access to very powerful and potentially destructive tools beyond any sort of practical or legislative control. He painted a dystopian picture, shared by many people, of AI running out of control and saw it as an existential threat to humanity.
In response Kit called upon the experience and opinions of 3 generations of his family, two of which are actively and positively involved in aspects of the technology.
Paul in opposing the motion outlined his well-informed concerns in the military use and misuse of AI allowing attacks by autonomous drone weapons to swamp defences.
From the floor came a number of interesting points that revealed the general worry felt about the possible misuse of AI and the limited effect of regional legislation that is clearly lagging behind the technology in its development.
A key comment from the floor was that how one felt about the proposal depended to a great degree as to whether one was an optimist or a pessimist, whether one saw the great advances in medical use of AI or worried about its use in the hands of malevolent regimes.
A vote was taken and resulted in the proposal being accepted by 12 votes to 9 and while there were no abstentions there were several member whose position could be described as ‘worried don’t-knows’.
Tony Martyr
2nd April 2024 Building “The New House of Wisdom
Craig Kershaw
Around 650AD there developed the House of Wisdom, a centre of learning, a forerunner of universities, in Baghdad. Over the following centuries the influence spread through the Islamic world and before the second millennium much scientific learning came from the Middle East.
In 2005 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, wishing to establish a legacy for himself and his country, established a trust fund of $20bn to build the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). After visiting the top 20 universities in the world to establish the essentials to meet the king’s vision, a panel of 11 people were chosen to be trustees.
The University was built as a self-governing “international city” 90km north of Jeddah. Built by 40,000 labourers in 1000 days, opening in 2009, it has 1100 students from 115 countries on campus. The complex hosts 150 faculties, 350 teaching staff and a support network of 12000.
Areas of research include:
Carbon capture technology using seaweed.
Wind pattern analysis to determine the best sites for wind turbines.
Development of cleaner internal combustion engines.
Solar panel efficiency improvement.
Nanotechnology.
Robotics and 3D printers for health applications.
By 2021 the university was on the third generation of massive supercomputers and had 17 electromagnetic microscopes (until recently 2021 the university was on the third generation of massive supercomputers and had 17 electromagnetic microscopes (until recently only 1 in Europe) supporting:
Fluid dynamics to improve space exploration vehicles, wing design for aircraft and racing car design.
Production of semiconductors 1 atom thick
voice assisting technology via magnetic masks.
sea coral regeneration to reduce the impact of rising sea levels.
salt tolerant crop growth.
A fascinating insight into an amazing achievement and magnificent legacy delivered in a spell binding manner.
Mike Read
Mike Read
Mike’s talk was about its author Rafael Sabatini.
Born 29th April 1875 in Italy to an English mother Anna (from Liverpool) and Italian father Vincenzo both well-known opera singers in Europe.
From the age of two to seven he lived with his maternal grandfather in Liverpool. His parents opened a singing school in Porto when he was seven where he joined them. Speaking English and Italian he learnt Portuguese and was knighted by the King of Portugal.
When the family relocated to Italy Rafael was sent to school in Switzerland adding French and German to his linguistic skills.
At seventeen he returned to his grandparents, working as an interpreter. Writing short stories was his hobby which by the age of twenty-four he sold to national magazines.
His first novel was published in 1902, two more followed by 1905 when he married Ruth Goad Dixon and moved to London to further his career writing.
Their son Rafael-Anglo was born in 1909. In 1914 he became British Citizen and worked for British Intelligence during WW1.
After he returned to writing, was moderately. successful, producing a book year. Everything changed in 1921 with the publication of Scaramouch which was an international success. Captain Blood the next year was turned into plays and films.
They moved to Gloucestershire in 1927 where Sabatini’s wife and son were involved in a car smash near their rented home, he found them both lying in the road, Ruth recovered but their son succumbed to his injuries. The marriage did not survive this dreadful blow and they were divorced in 1931.
Later that year he moved from London to Clifford near Hay-on-Wye. In 1935 marrieds his former sister-in-law the sculptor Christine Dixon and continues to write.
Then tragedy struck again in 1940 when Christine’s son Lancelot Steele Dixon, an RAF pilot, flew over the house, losing control, spiralled into an adjacent field and was killed instantly in front of them. Christine was traumatised by the event, but she created a sculpture and memorial garden to her son.
Since school in Switzerland, he frequently returned to indulge his passions of fishing, reading and skiing where in the alpine village of Adelboden he passed away on the 13th February 1950.
Clayton Lee
Following Mike's talk we were told all about Mary's Meals
Mary’s Meals
Hannah Moore
Hannah from the charity Mary’s Meals explained there are 67 million children at in school worldwide.
In many cases this is because they don’t have enough food to eat
She explained that two brothers Magnus and Fergus sitting in a pub in Dalmally discussing the Bosnia war decided to ask local people to donate aid which they then took to Bosnia. When they returned home to their surprise donation were still coming I so the idea of a charity was born.
Magnus visited Malawi during a famine he encountered a mother dying from Aids but still trying to provide for her children. He asked her son what his dreams were,rr5 to which he replied ‘I want to have enough food to eat and go to school one day’.
This was the start with the donation’s received food was provided and with the help of the local people started to provide daily lunches for children at school.
Since that humble being the charity is currently involved in eighteen countries around the world.
For more information about the charities work and donations please go to: marysmeals.org.uk
19 March 2024 Debate on Artificial Intelligence
Proposal: On balance, Artificial Intelligence is a power for good
Chairman Tony Paulden introduced Tony Martyr & Kit Smith for and Bernard North & Paul Serrell-Cooke against the motion.
Tony Martyr in his proposal gave a brief definition of the technology and observed that to deal with an ever increasing complexity and over population of the modern world AI was a necessary tool since it was increasingly impossible for humans to handle the volume of data we needed to control society. He observed that ‘those who fear the technology in reality fear our behaviour and potential malevolence’ and that in the current month the world’s first AI legislation came into force withing the EU.
In opposing Bernard drew attention to the global nature of the technology enabling anyone, anywhere, to have access to very powerful and potentially destructive tools beyond any sort of practical or legislative control. He painted a dystopian picture, shared by many people, of AI running out of control and saw it as an existential threat to humanity.
In response Kit called upon the experience and opinions of 3 generations of his family, two of which are actively and positively involved in aspects of the technology.
Paul in opposing the motion outlined his well-informed concerns in the military use and misuse of AI allowing attacks by autonomous drone weapons to swamp defences.
From the floor came a number of interesting points that revealed the general worry felt about the possible misuse of AI and the limited effect of regional legislation that is clearly lagging behind the technology in its development.
A key comment from the floor was that how one felt about the proposal depended to a great degree as to whether one was an optimist or a pessimist, whether one saw the great advances in medical use of AI or worried about its use in the hands of malevolent regimes.
A vote was taken and resulted in the proposal being accepted by 12 votes to 9 and while there were no abstentions there were several member whose position could be described as ‘worried don’t-knows’.
Tony Martyr
2nd April 2024 Building “The New House of Wisdom
Craig Kershaw
Around 650AD there developed the House of Wisdom, a centre of learning, a forerunner of universities, in Baghdad. Over the following centuries the influence spread through the Islamic world and before the second millennium much scientific learning came from the Middle East.
In 2005 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, wishing to establish a legacy for himself and his country, established a trust fund of $20bn to build the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). After visiting the top 20 universities in the world to establish the essentials to meet the king’s vision, a panel of 11 people were chosen to be trustees.
The University was built as a self-governing “international city” 90km north of Jeddah. Built by 40,000 labourers in 1000 days, opening in 2009, it has 1100 students from 115 countries on campus. The complex hosts 150 faculties, 350 teaching staff and a support network of 12000.
Areas of research include:
Carbon capture technology using seaweed.
Wind pattern analysis to determine the best sites for wind turbines.
Development of cleaner internal combustion engines.
Solar panel efficiency improvement.
Nanotechnology.
Robotics and 3D printers for health applications.
By 2021 the university was on the third generation of massive supercomputers and had 17 electromagnetic microscopes (until recently 2021 the university was on the third generation of massive supercomputers and had 17 electromagnetic microscopes (until recently only 1 in Europe) supporting:
Fluid dynamics to improve space exploration vehicles, wing design for aircraft and racing car design.
Production of semiconductors 1 atom thick
voice assisting technology via magnetic masks.
sea coral regeneration to reduce the impact of rising sea levels.
salt tolerant crop growth.
A fascinating insight into an amazing achievement and magnificent legacy delivered in a spell binding manner.
Mike Read