The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.2 | Sept 2023

HGS News

Chairman’s Report This is the first time I have had the very real privilege of writing to you, as your recently-elected Chairman, in “The Hampshire Family Historian”, more commonly referred to as “The Journal”. By the time you read this article, the 2023 Summer is almost over! However, back in the Summer, I was formally elected at our June 17th AGM, by all the members present (thank you all for that!), and my first action as Chairman was to oversee the elections / re-elections of our Trustees, including our new Vice Chair Kay Lovell, our new Secretary Jane Painter, and the remaining Trustees, including our two newest Trustees, Sue Stannard and Terry Gilmour. The front inside cover of this September 2023 issue of “The Journal” shows you the details of HGS’s new Officers, plus all the Trustees for the coming twelve months. We have all known each other for some time and I know we will all be pulling together for the benefit of the Hampshire Genealogical Society as a whole. Following my election in June the first task I was very pleased to perform, at end of the AGM, was to present retiring Trustees with ‘thank you’ gifts from the Society. As the AGM itself took only thirty minutes, there was ample time to say a sincere ‘goodbye’ to the three retiring HGS Officers: Paul Pinhorne (retiring Chairman), Gwen Newland (retiring Secretary) and Christine Pavey (retiring Vice Chair, Research Manager,

de facto Office Manager and de facto Sales Manager!) On behalf of the Society, I proudly thanked Paul for his

longstanding contribution to HGS, including leading the Ringwood Group for several years, then - as Chairman - masterminding and overseeing the successful move of our Research Centre from Cosham to Winchester during 2021 and for guiding the Society through the various ‘Covid 19 lockdowns’ during 2020 and 2021. The very supportive contribution played by his wife, Eileen, was also gratefully acknowledged and, together, they were presented with their gifts and a bouquet of flowers.. It was then the turn for Gwen Newland and her husband John to receive thanks from a very grateful team of Officers and Trustees who had known them both for several years. Gwen was our Secretary for the last few years of her time with HGS and her invaluable expertise and knowledge will be greatly missed, as will the support of her husband John who was a visible presence at many HGS functions over the years. They were presented with their gifts and a bouquet of flowers..

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