Once a year the four WI’s in our group meet up for a joint meeting and this year it was the turn of Wickhambrook WI to host the event. There were originally 5 WI groups in the “Gallops” collective but sadly Hundon WI has folded due to lack of membership. Wickhambrook, Newmarket, Chevington and Dalham and Gazeley are all still going strong so this meeting was an opportunity to catch up on news and events from the past year. The meeting was held in the Memorial Social Centre in Wickhambrook as our own hall would not have been large enough for this event. Julie Higgins, one of the area advisors also attended.
Following a welcome by Hilary Bradfield, president of Wickhambrook WI, the various officials of each visiting WI introduced themselves. Hilary then introduced the evening’s speaker Cindy Buxton who came to talk about her time spent in the South Atlantic. Cindy’s father was Lord Buxton who was a director of Anglian Television and best known for creating the nature documentary series “ Survival” which ran for four decades. As part of that series Cindy, herself a wildlife photographer, film maker and author and her colleague Annie Price went to the South Atlantic to film the wildlife. Whist there they became caught up in the Falklands War and eventually had to be rescued by HMS Endurance. They were given a very small hut to live in during their time on South Georgia and conditions were very primitive. All their food was dehydrated except when they could catch fresh fish. They were accompanied by 2 – 3 million birds, including albatross, king cormorants, rockhopper penguins, Gentoo penguins and King penguins.
Cindy’s talk was accompanied by a series of striking slides and videos of her time in the South Atlantic and she has published a book about her time there.
The entertainment for the evening was provided by the Ukulele Players of Bury St Edmunds who soon had us all singing along to some classic favourites. As usual refreshments were served and the meeting closed with God Save the King.
