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

HGS News

2023 Conference Day/AGM Report

The 49th Annual Conference Day and AGM of the Hampshire Genealogical Society was held on Saturday June 17th, 2023. It was a very warm and sunny late Spring day and, very early that morning, a number of HGS Trustees and Volunteers arrived at our venue – Littleton Hall just north of Winchester City Centre. From about 8.00am people were in the Main Hall, setting out chairs for the attending members, with a stage and further chairs for the President, Chairman, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Minute Taker, plus the tables and chairs for the HGS Exhibition Stand, known as “The Bookstall”, run by Fiona Ranger and her three Volunteers: Lorraine Whale, Sue Butterworth and Sue Wheatley. Further chairs and tables were set up in a room that would be used as the “Dining Room” for the day and, in the Foyer, Jane Painter erected the stands that contain the HGS Display Boards that had spent two months in the Foyer of Hampshire Record Office back in January / February. These boards can still be read on the HGS website. The Kitchen and Servery were being set up to serve teas / coffees / soft drinks by Jill Lee and further Volunteers Sue Atrill, Helen Walton, Jackie John and Karen Dunford (which they subsequently did ALL DAY!) While this was going on, Volunteers Lawrence Daniell and Steve Cull were outside, putting up “direction signs” showing the way to the Car Park from Littleton Main Road, and then acting as “Marshalls” in the Car Park, guiding our arrivals to parking spaces. Margaret Bowman and Chris Pavey were

sitting by the front door, taking down details of members arriving, giving out their name badges and Voting Cards to those eligible to vote. Volunteer Brian Prowting was then guiding members into the Foyer for a tea / coffee / soft drink. By 10.00am, everybody was present and sitting down, so the day began with Interim Chairman, Tony Sinclair, welcoming everyone and giving out the usual “housekeeping” information, before inviting our President Dr Nick Barratt to say a few words and to officially open the proceedings. Then, Angela Winteridge introduced our first Speaker of the day. This was Andrew Skinner from Southampton City Council, who gave a remarkably interesting presentation on conspiracy theories surrounding the sinking of RMS Titanic in April 1912, entitled simply “A Titanic Conspiracy.” He asked, “Was the sinking of Titanic an elaborate insurance scam, did poor quality rivets sink her or was a raging fire responsible for her sinking?” He showed us evidence that the suggestion of an such insurance fraud was most likely not the case. Members listened attentively and, once Andy had finished, several members asked detailed and intelligent questions of him. We then adjourned for a short while and subsequently returned to the Main Hall for the Society’s 49th Annual General Meeting. AGMs are a legal necessity for Charities such as ours. They can be a rather dry affair so we tried making the meeting as quick as possible! Our President, Nick Barratt, conducted the proceedings by, firstly, covering the Minutes of our 48th AGM held in June 2022 and having

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