Embedded Files
Next Lunch
Next Lunch
Friday 16th January 2026
Bring Me Sunshine - A Sunny Start to the New Year
After a friendly lunch, members of Milford Probus club and visitors (always welcome) will hear a lively and fun talk about the most illustrious and best loved double-act that Britain has ever produced. Tricia Thompson, with a background in music and performance, visits the huge TV success of Morecambe and Wise, whose ritually ridiculed guests included Penelope Keith, Laurence Olivier, Glenda Jackson, Harold Wilson, André Previn and Angela Rippon (who will forget those legs?). A decidedly fun start to the new year. Come and share it. Lunch and talk are just £32.
Future Lunch
Future Lunch
Friday 20th February 2026
Solving a crucial problem of navigation: finding longitude
After a friendly lunch, members of Milford Probus club and visitors (always welcome) will hear from Chris Vollers how in the 18th century a crucial maritime navigational problem was solved. Sailors on the high seas had no reliable way of knowing their exact location, and for the UK as a growing maritime trading nation this was causing painful human and economic losses. North/south location was determined with little difficulty, but east/west was not.
Chris tells the fascinating story of why tackling the longitude problem mattered so much, why it was so difficult to solve, and how an extraordinary Yorkshire carpenter and self-taught clockmaker finally achieved it.
Come and join us. Lunch and talk are just £32.
Past Lunches
Past Lunches
Friday 21st November 2025
Hogarth: Vice, Satire and Welfare
William Hogarth gave us a unique perspective of Georgian London. After a congenial lunch on Friday 21 November, Milford Probus Club members, guests and visitors explored this perspective with Dr Helen Naylor, a favourite speaker with a talent for bringing history to life.
Hogarth’s city scenes are dynamic and chaotic. Helen contrasts this with his contemporary Canaletto’s sanitized view of London and examines what we can learn from his depiction of high and low culture and human nature. London was Hogarth’s stage. He wove real people and places into his pictures, notably ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ and ‘Four Times a Day’ which examine London’s dark underbelly, its vices and debauchery.
Hogarth’s art was an improbable success. It led to legislation, including the first copyright laws and using ‘Gin Lane’ as a potent anti-alcohol poster for the Gin Act of 1751.
Friday 17th October 2025
The Madness of Courage : the astonishing exploits of a WW1 pilot
Group Captain Gilbert Insall holds a unique record: he is the only person to have both won a Victoria Cross and escaped successfully from a German prisoner of war camp during the First World War.
After a congenial lunch on Friday 17 October, his great-nephew Tony Insall told this story of exceptional achievements and near-unbelievable courage to members of Milford Probus Club, guests and visitors. Tony has a distinguished career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of War Studies at King’s College and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He lives near Guildford.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse