We met at 6pm on 8th May at a new venue this year – at the Fitzwilliams Centre in Beaconsfield Old Town.
It was a good venue and had been recommended by Ann Tennant, our caterer.
Gwyndaf welcomed everyone and proceded through the formal part of the meeting at pace.
His Chairman’s Report ran through the events that we had organised over the previous year, starting with the Summer Lunch (where more help is needed in setting up the gazebos) which was hosted by our President, Ann Evans.
The Golf Day in September attracted a good number of non-golfers, coming for the lunch.
Our visit to Milton’s Cottage and St Giles church was very popular and informative, finishing in a trip to Merlin’s Cave for lunch.
In November we had a fascinating talk on Patagonia by Gareth Morgan of the Slough Welsh Society. He told us of the Welsh settlers who travelled there in the 1860’s in order to defend their Welsh heritage. We held this meeting in Gerrards Cross Community Centre’s Garden Room and this proved a good venue.
Ann Evans once again hosted the Christmas Drinks in December and this year we did not run out of prosecco. Michael Owen led us at the piano as we sang Christmas carols.
In January, many of us met at the Magic Circle in London, to be amazed and fooled by close up magic tricks.
At this year’s St David’s Day we were entertained by Gwion Thomas and his wife, Chloe Willson-Thomas who sang for us, accompanied by John Breese on the piano.
This year’s events will include a Tudor themed walk through Old Amersham, a Country Walk in Hodgemoor Woods, the Summer Lunch and a new event – a visit to Vache Baroque, which is a music festival held in Chalfont St Giles.
Gwyndaf continued by saying that Ann Lawrence, who has been our Membership Secretary for almost every year since the Society started in 2000, is going to step down from the committee this year.
Gwyndaf thanked Ann for her many years of service and presented her with flowers and a bottle of champagne.
Membership of the society has remained constant at 121.
Lloyd Jones then gave his Treasurer’s Report, saying that over the year 2025/26 the Society had made a loss of £429.90, which was expected as the 2025 AGM was planned as a free event to celebrate our 25th year.
We then came to the election of the Officers of the Committee. Ann Browne has offered to stand as Membership Secretary in place of Ann Lawrence, and all the other committee members have agreed to stand again.
The vote was taken and the present committee was unanimously voted in.
So are current committee consists of:
Ann Evans Life President
Gwyndaf John Chairman
Michael Owen Minutes Secretary
Lloyd Jones Treasurer
Ann Brown Membership Secretary
Kay Day, David Powell Committee Members
& Colin Thomas
The posts of Vice Chairman and Secretary and currently vacant.
Gwyndaf then told us that David Powell has indicated that this would be his last year on the committee and that we do need others to volunteer to help with the running of the society.
That concluded the formal part of the meeting, and we broke for a meal provided by Ann Tennant and her daughter-in-law, Jagger. This was up to their usual standard – delicious – with a choice of chicken or salmon and lots of different deserts.
After the meal, Gwyndaf introduced our speaker, Wendy Blythe, from the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales.
Being new to the location, we did have some tense minutes trying to set up the overhead projector, but then Wendy was able to start her talk.
Wendy told us about the Council, its background and its current campaigns. These included campaigns against onshore windfarms (advocating offshore ones), protecting the habitat of endangered red squirrels and campaigning against pollution in our rivers, particularly the Wye and the Usk.
The evening finished at about 10pm with Gwyndaf thanking Wendy for such an interesting and informative talk.
We had a great turnout for our AGM on Friday 9th May. There must have been 55 people attending.
Chairman Gwyndaf John opened proceedings by welcoming everyone and saying that we had apologies from another 17. He said that as this was a special occasion, marking the 25th anniversary of the Society the celebration would be free and we would look back over the first 25 years since the Society’s creation. As he spoke, there was a slide show on the screen behind him showing photographs of our events over the 25 years – approximately 1,000 photographs!
Sue Jones then proposed a vote of thanks to past and present committee members.
Bob Ford then spoke about his time as chairman, and the 2004 trip to visit the Norwegian Welsh Society.
the organisers who had arranged outings, golf days and trips and all our committee members (giving special thanks to Jonathan Pegler and Maldwyn Pugh).
UK staff used to use Walther PPK pistols, but changed to bulkier Smith & Wesson revolvers after an incident when the automatic pistol jammed. Lloyd described the care and maintenance of the weapons and the firing practise that they undertook.
This year we chose a new venue for the AGM – the Jubilee Hall in Amersham. This is a new building on Rectory Hill, near the railway bridge, and just down the hill from Dr Challoner’s and is the home of the 2nd Amersham-on-the-Hill Scout Group.
There were about 33 members in attendance, and chairman, Colin Picton, kicked off the meeting at 7:30. Colin went through the formal part of the evening with approval of last year’s minutes and a run through of all the events we had enjoyed over the past year. Membership remains at about 110, and Colin welcomed several new members to the Society.
2Ann Lawrence asked a question about older members. Some members are no longer able to attend any of our meetings but still wish to keep in touch with the society. Ann asked whether it would be possible to let these members become ‘honorary members’ with no fee, but still included in emails and sent copies of the newsletter. David Powell said that, as treasurer he should point out that newsletters and postage would cost £4 per annum. The chairman proposed a vote on the issue and it was carried unanimously. The society will now offer an honorary membership to those who can no longer attend meetings.
Ann Tennant then served us all with dinner with three choices of main and several alternate desserts. We are all very thankful to have Ann, and are constantly surprised at how she prepares such good food on her own at such reasonable prices.
locations in the UK, both in Snowdonia. The flower is the only Alpine bulb in the UK and is probably a remnant from the ice-age.
Colin thanked David for his chairmanship over the past 3 years and went on to introduce our speaker – Neil Rees, an IT professional who is also a keen amateur historian and writes for the Bucks Free Press and has some fascinating facts about Aneurin Bevan.
The old farmhouse came with just over 50 acres, plus farm buildings, and 2 cottages. The farm manager and cowman were kept on, together with the herd of Guernsey cows and 60 hens. Nye became an enthusiastic farmer. He built up the herd to 60 cattle, and also started to keep pigs. 
This year we had a distinctly odd AGM.
Our Chairman, David Powell got off to a good start (this being his first year as Chairman and hence his first chairing of the AGM) by welcoming us all. In particular Thelma and John Lusher who had traveled all the way from the New Forest. The reports for the year were encouraging; membership strong at one hundred and sixteen; finances in good shape; two new members of the committee have volunteered their services – Merle Davies and Peter Chapman; and there has been strong support for all the events over the year. Particular thanks were directed towards Graham Beavan on his retirement after a long tenure as Treasurer.
by a meal. The caterer was Anne Tennant who clearly knows exactly what the members of the CDWS enjoy, and on this occasion was like a human dynamo. The rest of her team were at an event catering for the mayor of Beaconsfield so Anne was chief cook and bottle washer and everything in between. Well done Anne! The choice of desserts was particularly appreciated. Bread and Butter pudding and custard, Chocolate mousse, cheese and biscuits, Fruit Pavlova and I spotted a fruit salad for someone dairy intolerant. The gentlemen on our table made a bee-line for the Bread and Butter pudding, and then when Anne explained that she really didn’t want to take anything home, they were happily also tucking into Pavlova. No doubt belts were loosened.
After the meal came the entertainment. This year it was the place of Bertie Pearce whose web site says that he “…brings wonder and laughter to your event”. We were not disappointed on either count. The theme was “Now you See it-Now you Don’t, The Art of Visual Deception”. This was a whistle-stop tour through Surrealism, Trompe L’eoil, Ambiguous Imagery, Optical Art and Camouflage. Fascinating, thought provoking, puzzling, entertaining, amusing and all delivered at a pace that kept you on your toes, engaged and surprised. A particular ripple of amusement occurred when Bertie said that in America artists had used illusionary methods to paint potholes on the road which appeared to be 3D in order to reduce speeding. Here in Buckinghamshire we have no need for artists’ illusions. We have the real thing.
future event to offer magical entertainment?