You can print a copy of this Programme by pressing Ctrl + P or clicking your printer button
|
|
|
You can print a copy of this Programme by pressing Ctrl + P or clicking your printer button |
|
|
The Franco-British Society PROGRAMME
APRIL - JULY 2008 |
|
64th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Wednesday 23 April
6.30pm to 9.30pm All members - individual, branch, honorary and corporate - are cordially invited to the Society's 64th AGM, to be followed by a Reception with wine and food. The meeting will take place in the historic and recently renamed Entente Cordiale Room. The Reception will be held in the magnificent Durbar Court, first used in 1867 for a reception for the Sultan of Turkey. The name 'Durbar Court' dates from 1902 when coronation celebrations for King Edward VII were held there. It is open to the public during Open House weekend in September. Guests are most welcome to attend the AGM and Reception although, like honorary members, they are not entitled to vote. We are delighted and honoured that the new French Ambassador HE M Gourdault-Montagne will be the guest speaker. The Society's Enid McLeod Literary Prize for 2007 will be awarded to Professor Tim Blanning for 'The Pursuit of Glory'. Tickets for the Reception with food and white wine (red wine is not permitted in the Durbar Court as it stains the marble floor) are £35.00. Please note that for security reasons tickets are required by the FCO for admission into the building. Franco-British Society Registered Charity No 214096 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AGENDA 1) To receive the report of the Chairman, Baroness Shephard. 2) To receive the Financial Report and adopt the Accounts for the year ended 31 January 2008. 3) To elect Members of the Council. 4) To authorise the Council of the Society to reappoint the Auditors - Susan Field. 5) To transact any other business of the Annual General Meeting. Any Member entitled to attend and vote may appoint another person (whether a Member or not) as proxy to attend and vote instead of that Member. Nominations for election to the Council may be submitted by Members in writing to the Secretary not less than 14 days before the AGM date. The consent of the nominee must be obtained and the nomination must be seconded by a member of the Society. Under Article 21, the term of office of the following Members of the Council expires in 2008: Lady Duncan-Sandys, Dr Cynthia Gamble, Mr Dominic Grieve, Mr Christopher Robson, Lady Strabolgi. All have indicated that they are willing to stand for re-election at the AGM.
ANNUAL VISIT TO FRANCE 27 - 31 May The destination will be Normandy, and the group of around thirty members will be based in Deauville and Caen. We look forward to describing aspects of the visit in the annual newsletter which will be circulated at the end of the year.
IN SEARCH OF NAPOLEON III A Day's Excursion Monday 23 June Depart London (Victoria area) at 9.00am Return around 7pm, traffic permitting 2008 is the bicentenary year of the birth of Napoleon III. To commemorate this, the Society is planning an excursion to St Mary's Church (the imperial family's local church, and where Napoleon's funeral took place) and Camden Place (the elegant former home of the imperial family and now the clubhouse of Chislehurst Golf Club) in Chislehurst, Kent. In the afternoon we travel to St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire, for a guided tour of the Imperial Mausoleum where the family is buried. This excursion is for FBS Members and also members of the Alliance Française de Londres, which hopes to provide some expert on-board commentary about Napoleon III and his family. In 1880, the Empress Eugénie bought a house in Farnborough. Crushed by the loss of her husband Napoleon III in 1873 and the death in 1879 of her 23-year-old son in the Zulu War, she built St Michael's Abbey as a monastery and the Imperial Mausoleum. She invited French Benedictines, from the Abbey of Saint Pierre de Solesmes, there in 1895. Monsignor Ronald Knox described the Abbey as 'a little corner of England which is forever France, irreclaimably French.' In 1947 monks came from Prinknash Abbey, near Gloucester, to anglicise the house and ensure the continuity of the monastic life here. The last French monk, Dom Zerr, died in 1956. The community today draws on the richness of more than 100 years of monastic prayer and witness, and more than 1,500 years of Benedictine tradition. We shall be organising a coach for the whole day's excursion, which includes a buffet lunch at Camden Place, departing London at 9am (near Victoria train station) and returning in the early evening. Tickets are £40 to include return coach travel (with on-board lavatory), on-board commentary, guided tours, buffet lunch, and tea and biscuits before returning home.
'Europe's cultural revolution of the eighteenth century' An illustrated talk by Professor Tim Blanning Thursday 10 July Talk from noon until 1.00pm Refreshments afterwards until 2.00pm 60 Knightsbridge, London SW1 (Nearest Tube is Knightsbridge) Tim Blanning is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy. In his latest book The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 - which is the current winner of the Society's Enid McLeod Literary Award and from which he will draw his lecture - he brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in Europe's history. This was a world in which the elite were obsessed with the pursuit of glory: their own, that of their families and that of their countries. In this major work, Professor Blanning presents a provocative evocation of a vivid and magnificent era in Europe's history. Tickets are £15 to include sandwiches, coffee, tea, soft drink or a glass of wine. |
