This page is just a sample of some of the interesting meetings our members have enjoyed over the past few months.

 Defalcations of Jesse Varley - Having defined the legal term defalcations – taking off with a sickle, i.e. cutting off - Rod Varley told us the connection of this word with his great-grandfather, someone never discussed within his family. As an official of Wolverhampton education department in the early 1900s he had over a number of years successfully embezzled  £84,000, maybe as much as £50,000,000 in today’s money. As a trained accountant he had had inserted into every year’s accounts an extra page showing the salaries of imaginary teachers, until a colleague had looked at these documents and seen the names of teachers supposedly in his own school who did not in fact exist. Jesse had attributed his grand houses and his cars to his wife’s money, although she was in fact just a maid. During his inevitable time in prison he even taught book-keeping to fellow prisoners.

Mulberry Harbours in Conwy - In 1942 Bangor-born marine engineer Hugh Iorys Hughes was contacted by Winston Churchill to design a floating dock 200ft x 60ft capable of holding 1000 men and 6000 tons of equipment, although not revealing the reason for this request. Vicky Macdonald took us through the story of the building of a prototype of Hughes’s design carried out in the utmost secrecy at Conwy Morfa Beach, and its floating to Scotland to be judged alongside the projects of other engineers, illustrated with fascinating contemporary photographs of the whole project. Although his design was not chosen, he remained closely involved in the project to build Mulberry Harbours for the 1944 invasion

Giraldus Cambrensis - Michael and Margaret Farnworth ‘performed’ a double act bringing to life Giraldus Cambrensis/Gerallt Cymro/Gerald of Wales, the grandson of a Welsh princess who became a royal clerk and chaplain to King Henry II. In 1188 he journeyed round Wales with Baldwin, Archibishop of Canterbury, recruiting volunteers for the Third Crusade about which he wrote a detailed report from which Margaret read a number of extracts, but he was also easily diverted into re-telling the gossip, scandals and mythical stories he heard on his way. An insight into medieval life in Wales, and also into the tall stories of the time concerning miracles, toads, magic bones and a man giving birth to a calf.