Social Snapshots

click Social Snapshot articles by Joan West about mid winter weather, dentists, VE Day Legacies.

Use Social Snapshots here for Annual Records

2022. Tuesday 6th September. Liz Truss appointed Prime Minister by Queen Elizabeth. Voted in by the Conservative Party, following the resignation of Boris Johnston.

2022. Thursday 8th September. Queen Elizabeth II died at 4.30 pm on Thursday 8th September 2022 at Balmoral, Scotland, aged 96. She came to the throne in 1952, aged 25, reigning for 70 years. Prince Charles is now King Charles III.

2022. 25th October. Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister on her 50th day in office.

2021. Ted Janes died in December 2021. He had been Chairman of the Parish Council and the Village Hall Committee for many years. He was a J.P. He ran a youth club. He was the inspiration of Hallmark and Village Day. The Happy Wanderers Walking Club, The Horticultural Society and many other Village Hall regular events were established on his watch. Go to Ted & Jean Janes for their full history.

2018. July 2018 by The Local History Group. For our exhibition in November we plan to celebrate not only the end of WW1 but also the centenary of the Royal Air Force, formed from the Royal Flying Corps in 1918. Several men who trained in those early days had homes here during WW2, by then high ranking officers.

Please get in touch if you can tell us more or knew any of the families personally, if you know of others or have photos we could copy. Anyone in the History Group would be pleased to hear from you or ring Rosemary Mortham on 01844 345863

A full history of each will be given at the exhibition, giving photographs, details of their lifetime careers, their honours and awards, families and their association here with other details such as the planes they flew.

Also included will be the history of Bomber Command together with the controversy it provoked.

And the Suffragettes. see 1913 Saunderton Railway Station Gutted by Fire

The celebration parade of the schoolchildren will be reported. see 1918 School Armistice Celebrations

The influenza pandemic of 1919 will be mentioned. see 1919 Influenza Pandemic

2018. Brian Panter's obituary. The following is an extract from Brian's obituary printed in full in the life histories of Brian & Nell Panter :-

--- And a memory of the winter of 1962 when we'd just arrived in Princes Risborough, when Dad and I climbed the Whiteleaf Cross in two feet of snow. I've no idea why he led this expedition, apart from the sheer adventure and challenge of it.

And of course, the many, many hours spent together on horseback riding across hill and vale, through woods and field and looking after our horses in all weathers. I recognise now that my Mother and Rachel, being less horse obsessed, sacrificed other things to pay for the horses, and even then I was aware of heated discussions about money.

The other aspect of his life which runs back before my earliest memories, is Dad as an artist. There were always some of his paintings - horses or ships - on the walls of our houses. He painted and sketched all his life, and sculpted models of horses, including commissions. He also built a detailed scale model of HMS Clematis on which he served during the war, and this is now gifted to the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Drawing remained the chief joy in his later years, he always carried a small sketch pad in his pocket. It was a way for him to connect with the world, often spending hours in public places sketching the people he saw. He was never happier than at Sally's art classes at Phoenix Studios in Towersey which he managed to attend up until his stroke last year, which cruelly took away his ability to wield a drawing tool or pen.

He was devastated by my mother's death in 1990, but not long afterwards he formed a relationship with Jeanette, in which he found great joy and comfort. Jeanette was an important person in helping him engage with his grandchildren, arranging outings and treats, and even after their romantic relationship had passed into companionship, she remained a close family friend until her death a few years ago.

In 2017 at the age of 93, he was asked to speak The Immortal Words at 11am on Remembrance Sunday in the library at Princes Risborough, where he spent many hours. I was visiting and helped him put on his medals and walk round the corner. There was a small group of friends there, some librarians and a few members of the public, and he spoke the words with resonance and great depth. 'They Shall not grow old as we who are left grow old' had a special significance to him. So many of his peers and the women he loved were dead, he was finding old age intolerable and knew he was approaching the end his life. I felt very proud of him. It was the last remembrance Sunday he spoke at. By the following year his stroke had taken away his power of speech and we'd lost access to his memories and the connection to the act of remembrance.

He loved all his grandchildren : Rory, Holly, Faye and Hamish, and he loved to hear them play music. On that theme of remembrance, we ask my son, Rory, to play The Last Post for his Grandad