OUR first meeting of 2015, was opened on Monday, January 5 by Club Chairman, Bill Major, at the Abbey Hotel, Malvern.

After welcoming everyone, he was pleased to announce that a letter of appreciation had been received from St Richards Hospice for the monies raised at our Christmas lunch.

There will be 24 Monday meetings of the Probus Club in 2015 with a wide range of talks from both visiting speakers and Probus members.

To launch the 2015 programme, Don Wood, a long-time member of the Malvern Probus Club and with over 30 years experience of living in both West and East Africa, gave us a fascinating and detailed account of the Battle of Lake Nyassa, sometimes claimed as the first naval battle of the First World War, even though the captain of the German ship did not know that war had actually been declared! Then we heard the story of what could only be described as the guerilla war in E Africa, between the smaller German forces led by an outstanding commander, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the only commander in the First World War who never lost a battle and much larger British forces, eventually led by the ex-Boer Commander General Smutz. This was a lesser known theatre of the First World War but Don’s talk raised so much interest that the internet must have been buzzing that afternoon.

Our speaker on Monday, January 19 will be Roger Smith with his story of, Seven weeks in Tibet. Hopefully the Malvern Hills will not be snow covered at this time. The meeting is in the Abbey Hotel, Malvern. Refreshments are available from10am and the meeting begins at 10.30am.

The programme for the first half of 2015 is available in Malvern Library in the small cabinet on the right hand side as you enter the main library. For further information please e-mail t.batesworc@btinternet.com

TONY BATES

I have also attached a photo taken after our last meeting. If by any chance this could be included I had thought that the title might be something like;

Malvern Probus members raise a glass to welcome 2015 and to thank Don Wood-on the left of the photo - for his thought provoking talk'.