REMINISCENCES OF A FORMER HON. SECRETARY

 

The Probus Club of East Grinstead was the first Club to establish itself in Mid Sussex in 1981

followed by Burgess Hill in 1983. Our Club was founded in 1985 and Cuckfield and Lindfield, Mid

Sussex and Clayton followed soon after to cater for the demand for this type of Club.

 

The popularity of the Probus concept at this time is well illustrated by my own experience. I

applied to join in 1991 but was informed that membership was full and my name would be put on a

waiting list. I think I then forgot all about it but in 1993 out of the blue I was offered membership

and so my association with the Club began.

 

In those days we took our monthly lunches in Franklands Village Hall but the food was prepared

and cooked by caterers at Sheffield Park who brought it to the Hall where it was served. The meal

cost £7.50.

 

Although the bar prices at the Hall proved to be very attractive to members the catering

arrangements were unsatisfactory not only to the Club but also to the caterers. So in 2000 a decision

was made to move to Lindfield Golf Club (then known as Paxhill Park) and we have remained

there ever since.

 

In the fullness of time I was asked to play a part in the running of the Club when a vacancy for the

position of Hon Sec became vacant. This I agreed to do without fully realising what the job

involved.

 

In these early days, with one or two important exceptions, the roles of President, Vice President and

IPP tended to be figureheads with almost all of the routine administrative work being carried out by

the Hon Sec, a trend which was accelerated by one President I worked with who had developed

delegation of work into a fine art. The Treasurer, of course, looked after the money and accounting.

 

To give some idea of what was involved this is a summary of the Hon Sec’s main routine

responsibilities:

1. organising and preparing agenda and minutes for committee meetings - upwards of four per

year - and the same for the AGM.

2. making all the arrangements for the speakers’ programme.

3. booking, arranging seating and menus for monthly lunches including notes and

announcements for the President.

4. the maintenance of members’ attendance records, which were carefully scrutinised by the

Committee who vigorously enforced the rule regarding minimum attendance. (I once had the

unpleasant duty of terminating membership of a persistent under attender.)

5. maintaining membership lists including the welcoming of new members and recording

departures.

6. all correspondence including letters of welcome to new members and of sympathy and

condolence on the death of a member.

 

At this time possessing an electric typewriter was regarded as cutting edge technology and copies

were made using carbon paper or a Roneo machine. Stationery shops had started to provide a

photocopying service which was a helpful bonus.

 

There was, of course, no internet and every month around fifty lunch invitations had to be prepared,

duplicated and distributed to members, mostly by hand.

 

Apart from the routine tasks listed above the Hon Sec was expected to handle other organising

duties on an ad hoc basis, including:

 

1. preparing for the annual President’s Coffee Morning which was initially held in the Oak

Room at Sheffield Park until John Butler became President when he changed the venue to Heaven

Farm.

2. acting as host Club at an Interprobus meeting at Ardingly Showground, where all five of the

Mid Sussex Clubs took lunch together.

3. in 2006, celebrating our 21st Anniversary with a lunch at East Sussex National Golf Club.

 

During my time as Hon Sec I kept a bespoke Probus diary which acted as a “trigger” for jobs that

had to be done and reminded me of deadlines that had to be kept and there were few days in the

year for which there was no Probus matter requiring attention.

 

I did the job for three years at which point I received an ultimatum from my wife, June who always

provided valuable assistance by taking telephone messages and helping with the monthly

distribution of about fifty lunch invitations. I had tomake a choice - and resigned as Hon Sec!

 

This in itself caused problems as my final duty to the Club was to find my successor. It proved to be

impossible to find another member sufficiently gullible to take on the job and the only way forward

proved to be to split the work into its three main components and appoint one member to each part -

a situation which largely continues to exist to this day.

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My earliest memory of Club members is that most of them had served in the armed forces during

WWII and 50 years afterwards it was clear from talking to them what a huge impact this experience

had had on their lives. However, they all seemed to enter into the spirit of the Club, attended events

and generally “did their bit” when required.

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Our 40th anniversary gives a unique opportunity to record that the Club has benefitted from having

had some devoted people as members and it is appropriate to highlight the outstanding

contribution that a few of them have made:

 

Gwyn Mansfield (1927-2009) was a big man and a big personality who served as President and Hon

Sec. He wrote the original history of our Club. In addition he was responsible for organising many

social events as well as a three day trip to the D day landing beaches in Normandy and another to

Durham where we visited the Bowes museum, Beamish Open Air museum and York. One of his

memorable social events was to organise a Mothers’ Day lunch for members’ wives when he and a

small team of “chefs” created a three course meal in the minute kitchen in Franklands Village Hall

while other members acted as waiters and chauffeurs to ferry the ladies from their homes to the

Hall. He was a resident of Lindfield (but not born and bred there), was a leading light in village

activities and revised and updated the official Village History.

 

Mike Sharman (1939-2012) gave outstanding service to our Club not only as President but as

organiser of some of the most memorable events ever experienced by our members. These included

numerous local day trips such as a cruise on theWey and Arun canal, preceded by lunch, as well as

at least five cruises on Continental canals and rivers - the Danube, Rhine and Rhône - and another

cruise along the river Severn from Gloucester. A cruise on the Dutch canals in 2012 is particularly

noteworthy and poignant because, although we were not aware of it, he was suffering severely from

his final illness and on his return he managed to finish his work in creating the Club Instruction

Manual. Apart from Probus activities he was an officer in the Lindfield Boys’ Brigade, well

remembered by my two sons as a fearsome drill instructor! His wife, Maureen, is now a greatly

valued member of our Club in her own right and is continuing with the excellent work started by

Mike. It is important that our members continue to remember and value the outstanding

contribution that this couple have made to the Club’s success.

 

Tony Ashby. I have particular reason to be thankful to Tony because he came to my rescue in 2005

when the Club Treasurer resigned unexpectedly mid-term and, as Hon Sec, I was instructed by the

President to find a replacement immediately. Tony appeared to me to be well qualified for the job

but he had only very recently joined the Club and I didn’t really know him. It was therefore with

great reluctance and diffidence that I asked him to take on the job and much to my surprise his

immediate response was to agree to do it. He continued in this office until 2013 and became VP in

2016 and President in 2017. He has remained a Committee Member, mainly as Accounts Examiner,

ever since which means that, with one short break, he has continuously served the Club in an

executive role for about 20 years. This must surely be record that will never be broken! Apart from

all of this, in his own quiet and unobtrusive manner, Tony maintains contact and visits housebound

widows of former members as well as members who are temporarily incapacitated. Tony and his

wife Marian are also well known in the area as expert ballroom dancers and together they run a

group in the local U3A.

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Epilogue. Due to a lack of records most of these recollections have been put together from memory,

which I am only too well aware, is not reliable. While I am satisfied that most of the information is

broadly correct there are likely to be a number of inaccuracies, particularly in dates. Inevitably,

with this reliance on memory, there will also be important omissions, for all of which I offer my

apologies in advance!

 

Alan Carver

March 2025