Author: Jim Murphy

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Club Meeting – Ashley Gray

We welcomed this evening Ashley Gray – a member of the Walsall Saddlers Rotary Club – as our speaker. Ashley is a Rotary Assistant District Governor with responsibility for our own Club and the other Rotary Clubs within our zone.

As part of his role Ashley helps to keep us up to date with whats happening within our Rotary District and the wider Rotary family as well as taking feedback from us on these developments. Mixing these duties with running his own business cannot be easy and it became apparent from talking to Ashley just how much of his spare time is devoted to helping the Rotary movement grow and prosper.

Ashley’s work is greatly appreciated by the Club and we look forward to working with him for the remainder of this Rotary year.

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Club Meeting – Martyn Long

It was a great pleasure to welcome Martyn Long – the recently appointed Headmaster of Tettenhall College – to our meeting this evening. With a history dating back to 1863 the College attracts children from around the world and has a reputation for providing a sound academic education based on traditional standards of excellence within a stimulating and caring environment.

After a brief tour through his own school and university days Martyn updated us on developments within the College in the six months since his arrival.

This is Martyn’s second stint at Tettenhall having previously headed the physics department before leaving to take up an appointment as a deputy head 10 years ago. His affection for the school and its nurturing environment is obvious and we are fortunate to have such a gifted educator to lead the staff and pupils and to secure the College’s future.

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Santa Sleigh

Tettenhall Rotary Club’s Father Christmas Sleigh aims to bring a little magic to children and communities at Christmas and at the same time raise funds for good causes. But as organiser Roger Timbrell said ‘the real magic this year was how the Christmas spirit, generosity and warmth of welcome of the people in the communities we visited shone through the inclement weather’

Although the weather forced some cancellations over £5,000 was raised for Compton Hospice, Midlands Air Ambulance and other Rotary charities. This included £237.29 at the switching on of the lights event at Tettenhall, £3971.81 collected outside Sainsburys at Perton, £366.04 outside the Co op at Codsall and £389.83 during the three evenings that they visited the communities of Fordhouses, Low Hill and Old Fallings. The Club wishes to apologise for not being able to visit Claregate, Blakeley Green, Aldersley and Bushbury as planned on Saturday 18th and Wednesday 22nd December. Heavy snow and ice forced them to have to cancel for safety reasons.

Our thanks go to Stratstone Land Rover in Wolverhampton for loaning the tow vehicle for the Father Christmas Sleigh and David Gregory, the manager of Sainsburys Perton for his support and for donating sweets. In addition, Blakemore’s Cash and Carry and the Co-operative also kindly donated sweets for Santa to give out to children.

We are also grateful to the school choirs of Codsall High School, Bilbrook Middle School, Perton Middle School, Perton First School, Perton Sandown First School and Smestow School who sang carols around the sleigh outside Sainsburys, Perton, throughout the day on 10th December.

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Christmas Charity Carol Concert

We were delighted this evening to be entertained by the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble – which is made up of players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – who performed a programme of seasonal music supported by the choir of St Dominic’s High School for Girls in Brewood. As is usual there was plenty of opportunity for the large audience to sing along with a number of traditional carols and to partake of mince pies during the interval.

Over the 15 years that the Club has staged this event over £20,000 has been raised in support of local good causes.

The proceeds from this years concert were raised in support of Compton Hospice to help them to provide clinical and support services for people with life limiting illnesses. The annual running cost of the Hospice is over five million pounds and with Government funding only meeting one third of this the Hospice depends on the support of a number of local fundraisers.

With snow falling as the concert came to an end this was a truly magical start to the Christmas season and our thanks go to the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble and to the staff and girls of St Dominic’s for their performances, to the University of Wolverhampton Science Park who kindly allowed the use of their Auditorium, and to Rotarian Peter Maddox and his family who organised the event.

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New Member – Jag Gill

There are few happier moments for a Club than the induction of a new member and this evening I and the other members of the Rotary Club of Tettenhall were pleased to welcome Jagjit Gill to our number.

Jag runs a successful company specialising in the laying of roads, car parks and driveways and the installation of groundworks. In joining our Club Jag has committed to the Rotary Objects to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;

FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

We alll welcome Jag to the worldwide family of Rotary and look forward to working with him.

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Club Meeting – Battle of Britain

70 years on it was appropriate this evening that we should be joined by Squadron Leader Richard Painter to talk to the Club about the Battle of Britain and the recent reappraisal of the debt owed not only to those famous few of fighter command but to the many hundreds of bomber command and of coastal command who also gave their lives during this period.
It was apparent from Richard’s talk that the victory over the skies of Britain in 1940 owed much to the visionary leadership of a few key individuals and to the detailed air defence preparations which they gave birth to and which culminated in a unrivalled defence network depriving the Luftwaffe of the air superiority which they had enjoyed over mainland Europe. Richard clearly has a great understanding of his subject and his presentation greatly moved the members of the Club. Our thanks to Club member Les Bouts for introducing Richard to us.
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In Memory – Remembrance Day

The motto of the Rotary movement is ‘Service Above Self’ and it is today sobering to reflect on the meaning of such words and on the sacrifice of the hundreds of people in Wolverhampton who gave their lives in the service of others.

Each year the the Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton come together at the City’s Civic Service of Remembrance to honour the fallen. The service brings together representatives of organisations and communities from throughout the City in recognition of the sacrifices made and which continue to be made to preserve our freedoms.

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condem
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.’
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Club Meeting – Sammy Chung

Rotary is a great way to get to know more about people and this evening we had the pleasure of learning more about one of the Club’s newest members Sammy Chung.

Originally from Hong Kong Sammy trained and qualified as a chartered surveyor in the UK before working on projects both here and in the far east. Now a senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Engineering and the Built Environment and an Honorary Professor at Shenzhen Polytechnic.

As well as exemplifying the Rotary motto of service above self through his vocation Sammy also serves the community as a magistrate on the Wolverhampton bench.

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Club Meeting – District Governor

As part of their duties the District Governor in each Rotary District visit each Club on their District at least once during their year of office.

This evening we were pleased to welcome Glyn Johnson our current District Governor for his visit to the Tettenhall Club. Glyn is a member of the Rotary Club of Blythe Bridge and District.

During his visit Glyn updated members on the progress of a number of Rotary initiatives and gave members the opportunity to raise questions and make their own views known. We all appreciate the work which Glynn has taken on and which takes up so much of his time. We wish him well in the remainder of his year.

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Club Meeting – Help for Heroes

The remarkable charity, ‘Help for Heroes’ has captured the imagination and support of the nation. Our speaker this evening was Jerry Hobbs, who is the local organiser for the charity and is also a member of Wolverhampton Rotary Club.

We were delighted to welcome Jerry back again to bring us up to date with developments within ‘Help for Heroes’ and to learn of the further progress being made. Jerry’s boundless enthusiasm and commitment is never in doubt and all the Club members present were again amazed at the tremendous progress and the many achievements which the charity has made in a relatively short space of time.

Seeing the new facilities now brought on stream at Headley Court – the charity’s main rehabilitation centre – and the setting up of additional rehabilitation facilities throughout the UK was quite inspiring, but nothing matched the amazing fortitude, resilience and sheer courage of the young servicemen undergoing treatment – each fighting a personal battle to resume life back in the community – many with the most appalling injuries, yet unfailingly cheerful and confident in their ability to forge new lives for themselves. All quite humbling!