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South Woodham Focus
SOUTH WOODHAM
FERRERS
Once again we enjoyed an excellent
Strawberry Tea laid on by East
Hanningfield WI. The ladies work
really hard to make these events a success and this year was no
exception. The strawberries were lovely, as were the scones with
cream and jam. This is always a well-supported event and we
look forward to the equally popular Harvest Lunch in October.
The Speaker this month was John Stirling, whose talk was
entitled ‘Toy Town to Buckingham Palace’. John had travelled
down from Manchester to talk to us. This rather surprised us
until he mentioned he had auditioned with Essex Federation and
most of his talks are ‘down south’.
John was born in
1944, the son of an
actress who was
filming Candlelight in
Algeria at the time.
In those days women
and actresses were
frowned upon if they
became pregnant so
his mother hid her
pregnancy and
ultimately the baby.
She put him in a
drawer in a chest of
drawers in her
dressing room. This worked well until John began crying and
gave the game away! Being exposed to the thespian life so early
made its mark and John became a child actor at the age of ten.
He was chosen to appear in Enid Blyton’s musical, Noddy in
Toyland. He still has the suit he wore! John appeared in various
radio programmes such as Ted Ray’s ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ and ‘Whacko’
with Jimmy Edwards. As time went on he wanted to concentrate
on production and was fortune enough to meet and become
friendly with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. John became their
Production Manager at the tender age of 18! As time went by,
he stage managed all their pantomimes and summer shows.
John was commissioned to write a play for actress Patricia Hayes.
This was called ‘Marked for Life’ and was about an elderly recluse
who lived in Devon with 12 rescued donkeys. John then had to
search the country for poorly donkeys! Unfortunately Patricia
Hayes passed away before the play was broadcast so he was left
with the animals. He didn’t want them to be destroyed so with
the co-operation of Judy Dench and June Brown, he started ‘The
Actors Donkey Sanctuary’. The ‘Michael Elliot Trust’ was later
formed and has been helping to rescue donkeys and look after
children with special needs for over 25 years. As a result of
working with various artists and putting on variety shows for
good causes, John had a private audience with the Queen at
Buckingham Palace and was asked to take two donkeys with
him. This explained the title of his talk!
The afternoon ended with excellent cakes, baked by Marlene.
Unfortunately Linda was unwell (get well soon please!) so Pam
stepped in to help with making the tea – a big thank you to both
of them. Another thank you to Joy who not only took money
and sold raffle tickets as ladies arrived but also collected money
for outings, helped by Delphin. Multi-tasking is well known in
the WI! All your help is much appreciated.
There will be no Craft Club on August the 14th but we meet as
usual on the 28th in the WI Hall, Guys Farm Road from 1.30 until
4.00pm.
Our Institute is holding an Afternoon Tea in aid of Breast Cancer
Care on Wednesday the 8th of August in the WI hall, Guys Farm
Road, from 2.00pm until 4.00. There will be tea and cakes and
anyone is welcome to join us in raising funds for an excellent
charity.
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SOUTH WOODHAM
FOCUS
email: swfocus@maypolepress.com