FCA Magazine (FCAtoday) - Issue 47: Winter 2012
FC staff Retirement Association magazine. The content summary below was very kindly compiled by Diane Birkett, Bedfordshire. See PDF attachment below the text to view the full document. A total of 76 issues were completed between 1997 and the final issue in 2023.
Issue 47: Winter 2012
Articles
AGM 2013 Details
The 2013 AGM will be held on the 14th & 15th May at the Lady Anne Middleton Hotel in York. The tour will be at Castle Howard.
Conscientious Objectors Meet the Inniskillen Dragoon Guards
Ken Baker’s account of a friendship that grew between a group of conscientious objectors working for the Forestry Commission and a platoon of soldiers.
Bob Power and the Class of '39
Peter Owen writes about Robert (Bob) Power who began his Forestry Commission service in 1939 in the Forest of Dean. He attended the first ever forestry school that opened in 1908 and was located in the 1870s Engine House of the Parkend Iron Works. He completed his service as Chief Forester at Alice Holt in Hampshire retiring in 1983. He was 93 years old in October and still lives independently. He revisited Parkend on 9th August 2012 with Kathy, one of his four daughters, and for old times sake had a beer in the Fountain Inn, across the road from the old FTS that closed in 1972.
Blues Biography
Ex-forester, author, musician and broadcaster Phil Ratcliffe receives a major award for his biography of blues man Mississippi John Hurt. Phil has been running his own consultancy, ‘Ecological Land Use Consultancy’ since taking early retirement in 1996. Since 2002, he has been more actively pursuing his early interest in the music of America’s Deep South and in 2003 began researching a biography of iconic bluesman and songster, Mississippi John Hurt. His book Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues was published last year.
Bog Oak – 5,000 Year Old Tree Found in Norfolk
The trunk of a giant oak tree, thought by experts to be more than 5,000 years old, has been unearthed in a field in Norfolk. (As reported by the BBC). The 44ft (13.4m) Fenland Black Oak, or bog oak, was found buried in farmland at Methwold Hythe, near Downham Market. Planks cut from the trunk will be dried over seven months in a specialist kiln.
El Syd is Remembered
Where are Syd Cruden's Lads now? Syd has passed on to do auditing in some other place, his wife Connie, told me of his death in August aged 85. Auditors are resilient. He was a vibrant character who, in his retirement at Chandlers Ford, was active in country dancing and doing what he most enjoyed, mucking about with the Woodland Trust, digging drains and building bonfires. He will be fondly remembered by his Lads, John McSorley, Ian Miller, Bill Gordon, Derek Benoy, Keith Gliddon, Keith Milsom, Brian Easton and Brian Robertson.
Gwydyr Forester Training School 1962-64 Reunion in September 2012
Phil Ratcliffe has written about the reunion and also took a photograph of the attendees which shows: - Dy Price; Pat Birkhill; Dick Godfroy; Tim Sawyer; Pet ‘Fergie’ Ferguson; Mick Taylor; Colin Steele-Perkins; Adrian Condron; John ‘Billy’ Budd and Colin Lawes. Jim Southee (The Duke) attended; but isn’t in the photo. Sadly, they learned of the deaths of Harold ‘Andy’ Anderton, Pete Dewey and Gerry Nicholls. In the article, Phil recalls many of the tales of student life and includes a copy of the Gwydyr ‘Scale of Allowances Payable During Residential Training at a Forester Training School’, the 1966 Autumn Term Exam paper and a photograph of the school building now, which is an army training camp and looks unchanged.
Book Review
A History of Laughton Forest 1926-2012 by Rob Guest
Laughton Forest in North Lincolnshire was established in the early years of the FC on some of the largest inland sand dunes in the country. Rob Guest, who started working in Laughton as a schoolboy in his holidays and who recently retired from Deputy Surveyor of the Forest of Dean, has written a history of Laughton. It documents the difficulties encountered over the decades from black grouse damage to young trees, difficulties with species choice, and more recently red band needle blight affecting the Corsican pine. Issues about the forest environment and the management staff are also covered.
From the Editor
A comment from Richard Toleman.
Obituaries
Mike Whitlock remembers Dr. Fred Hummel who was born in Switzerland in 1915 and died in October. He was an FC Commissioner and Director of Forestry for the EEC. He wrote a book “Memories of Forestry and Travel: Uganda, Mexico, Britain, Brussels and Beyond”.
David Williams remembers George Pringle who died in June aged 89 years. He was a well established figure in Research at Betws y Coed where he spent most of his career. His assistants who will remember him were Bob Ure, Peter Gregory, Alan Bacon and Dave Downs. He was the Whitley representative for many years on the Civil Service Union.
Dorothy Munn tells of the interesting life of George Stabler who started working for the FC in Gilling Woods in 1940. He was in the army from 1944-1947. After the war ended, workers were sent to Germany to do forestry work in the Black Forest and George was given the job of instructor. He continued to work in the Hambleton District until he retired in November 1990 after 50 years service.
Roger Busby has told of the death of Simon Hewitt.