Good evening folks,

An update on forthcoming events as we move into the Autumn.

First however, I hope those of you that attended both Flixton and Bentwaters would agree what excellent visits they were. Very informative and interesting.

Our next talk will be given by Derek Clarke on one of the great Ipswich Engineering Companies, Ransome and Rapier. Some of you will be familiar with Derek as he organizes the annual R and R reunions in Ipswich.

  Moving into October we are fortunate to have secured a talk by Peter Biggs. Peter came from a long line of coal miners on the Derbyshire / Nottingham border.  At 15 he could have joined school friends and family at the local mine. He however opted to remain at school and instead, joined the Royal Navy. He spent 2 years on HMS Eagle, an aircraft carrier and was then drafted into submarines where he spent the next 26 years either underwater or in nuclear bunkers! Peters has a quote about the talk. 'Coalmines to Submarines' The story of the 15 year old who did not want to work underground but actually finished up underwater for a large part of his working life. The talk will also chart the story of the start of the submarine service in the UK and how submarines evolved to be what they are today.

  At the end of October one of our newer members, Ian Saunders, has volunteered to give us an interesting talk which will combine three separate subjects, all of which are actually linked together. In discussions with Ian as to how we would present this, we felt the easiest way was to put the whole package together.