Meeting reports 2018

Mike Levy gave us the agreeable sensation of being rejuvenated as he took us through the development of the British musical.  First he charmed us by saying we didn’t look old enough to remember the 1960s; then his musical illustrations took us right back there.

In the centenary of the year when some women first gained the right to vote in elections to Parliament, History Society member Felicity Cooke took us through the seemingly even more convoluted process which finally enabled women to receive degrees from Cambridge University 30 years later (and 60 years after London University).

David J. Jones, author of the 2013 book “Hideous Cambridge: A City Mutilated” treated us to a talk about what he sees at the appalling developments and architectural disasters in and around Cambridge, from the 1960s to the present day.

The distressingly commonplace story of a brave young man, Robert Quilter Gilson who was killed at the Battle of the Somme. Less commonplace are the recollections of him preserved in his family, and particularly his letters home. These were presented by some of Gilson’s relatives who attended our meeting, and extracts from the letters were movingly read by an actor.

A talk by Robert Halliday, who has been investigating local ghost stories for many years and has written a number of books on the subject.

Arthur Brookes, who worked there for many years and now knows more about it than just about anybody else, told us story after story about the men (and some women) who lie there.  Most died on active service in the US Army, Air Force or Navy, and there are over 5000 names on the Wall of the Missing whose remains were never found: airmen whose planes did not return or sailors lost at sea.