Wilf Lower gave us a very entertaining and well-illustrated talk “Lost Empires – the last days of Music Hall and Variety” at our July meeting. Wilf grew up surrounded by actors and entertainers as his mother ran theatrical digs of a very superior kind in Chatham, at a time when theatrical land ladies were legendary for their petty rules and appalling cooking. We were given a brief history of the Music Hall and Variety from the Victorian era to the dying days of the Theatre Royal in Chatham (it eventually closed when the electricity was cut off with an unpaid bill of over £300 in the 1950s). Wilf’s home life influenced his career as he ended up working for the BBC, although not as a performer, instead he worked in Scenic Operations.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 9th September at 8pm in the Horton Kirby Jubilee Hall, and our speaker will be Terry Moyle talking about “Fun with Family Trees”. As an aside, there will also be a large number of free back copies of the Who Do You Think You Are? magazine available at the meeting.

Our 2019 schedule:
11th November        AGM & Talk by Stephen de Winton followed by Wine & Cheese

And finally, our 2020 schedule
13th January            Doing our bit – Steve Hookins
9th March                Dartford Rural Rides – Christoph Bull
18th May                  Murder, Madness & Mayhem – the Belgian Royal Family Melanie  Gibson-Barton
13th July                    Up the Junction (Old Swanley) part 2 – Keith Whitworth
14th September       Leeds Castle – Ann Kneif
9th November          AGM, Short Talk followed by Cheese & Wine