Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

MARCH
APRIL
Monday 12 March, 2.15 pm onwards
Commonwealth Day Observance
Westminster Abbey
Commonwealth Day Observance is celebrated
annually on the second Monday in March
across the 54 member countries of the
Commonwealth and in other parts of the
world where Commonwealth citizens gather
together. In the UK, this special day is
celebrated by a unique event at Westminster
Abbey attended by Her Majesty The Queen,
the Prime Minister, High Commissioners, up
to 200 other VIPs and more than 1,000
schoolchildren. The theme for the 2012
celebration is ‘Connecting Cultures’; threads
that tie people together from every continent,
faith and ethnicity.
A selected number of complimentary tickets
to this event are available for ESU members
only, on a first come first served basis.
Dress code: lounge suit
Thursday 15/Friday 16 March (to be
confirmed)
W H Page and Chautauqua Teachers
scholarships interviews
Thursday 22 March
Secondary School Exchange scholarships
interviews
Thursday 22 March, 12.30 – 2.30 pm
Dartmouth House Lunch
Martin Bell: For WhomThe Bell Tolls
Martin Bell has been many things – an icon of
BBC war reporting, Britain’s first independent
MP for 50 years, a UNICEF ambassador, a
staunch supporter of rights for the armed
forces, and ‘the man in the white suit’ – a
tireless campaigner for honesty and
accountability in politics. But as his new book
reveals, he’s also a talented poet of light
verse, and here Bell’s poems continue his war
by other means on duplicitous politicians, our
all-consuming media, the venality of celebrity
culture and much more. Oscillating between
trenchant satire and touching honesty, often
poignant autobiography spiced with gentle
humour, Bell presents poems on Tony Blair
and Iraq; on Radovan Karadzic, the Serbian
war criminal whom he met on trial in The
Hague; and on his hero, Reuter’s reporter
Kurt Schork, killed on assignment in Sierra
Leone.
Join the ESU for a literary Dartmouth House
Lunch where Martin will discuss how colourful
episodes from his work and life helped
shaped the content of For Whom The Bell
Tolls - from the chart-topping calypso written
about him in St Lucia to his being a guest at
Idi Amin’s wedding.
Tickets: £40 members, £45 alumni*, £50
guests* (two-course lunch with wine)
*to include an optional voluntary donation of
£5 and £10 respectively to support the
charitable work of the ESU
Copies of For Whom The Bell Tolls will be on
sale at the event.
Friday 30 March
Schools Mace England Final – 30 March
2012, at Dartmouth House
Wednesday 11 April, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
Meet the Author
Sally Nilsson: The Man Who Sank Titanic
The Troubled Life of Quartermaster Robert
Hitchens
To commemorate the 100 year anniversary of
the sinking of the British liner RMS Titanic,
the ESU has a very special Meet the Author
event with Sally Nilsson, great-granddaughter
of Quartermaster Robert Hitchens, the man
given the order to steer Titanic away from the
fatal iceberg.
Following an appearance on Channel 4 News
and with previously unpublished research and
photographs from the Hitchens family
archives, Sally presents the truth behind a
much-maligned figure; a man branded a
“coward” by the Unsinkable Molly Brown,
considered a curse by fellow crewmen and
whose life was personified by survival,
betrayal and determination.
Tickets: £15 to include a glass of wine and a
selection of nibbles.
Copies of The Man Who Sank Titanic will be
on sale at the event.
Tuesday 17 April
Lindemann Trust Fellowship interviews
Wednesday 25 April, 12.30 – 2.30 pm
ESU and Mid-Atlantic Club Lunch
Dame Mary Richardson – Chairman of the
English-Speaking Union
At a special joint luncheon event for members
of the English-Speaking Union and Mid-
Atlantic Clubs, Dame Mary Richardson will
discuss the causes and effects of youth
alienation. Following the summer riots of
2011 where the vast majority of defendants
sat before the magistrates’ courts were found
to be young men and women under the age
of 25, Dame Mary will explore how society
can help combat social exclusion amongst an
apparent lost generation of young people who
continue to be angry with the police and
government.
Tickets: £40 members, £45 alumni*, £50
guests* (two-course lunch with wine)
*to include an optional voluntary donation of
£5 and £10 respectively to support the
charitable work of the ESU
Saturday 28 April
Schools Mace International Final – 28 April
2012 at ESU Dartmouth House
DIALOGUE 60