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April 2024 April 2024

INTERESTING LIVES BERE REGIS WI

POMPEY BOY - Ian Ventham
We had a very interesting evening with a retired lady
I was a Pompey boy, born in July 1948, just three army officer with a talk called from court shoes to
years after the end of the second World War and combat. Sally explained her background as she
a week before the NHS was created. I was entered training at the age of 27. She was
brought up with my two older brothers in the still determined to be as good if not better than the
war-damaged, gritty, naval city of Portsmouth. men. She did combat tours of Bosnia and Sierra Leone. She also liaised with the
One of my earliest memories is of going to the royal household as she was the person detailed to co ordinate a royal funeral. All
local post office with our ration books to collect this accompanied by a splendid slide show.
c on c e n tr a t e d Some members then attended the Tivoli theatre in Wimborne to watch a
orange juice. School was at the local primary, but performance of ”some mothers do have ‘em”. A very clever script skilfully
in 1956 I joined my brothers in the Prep part of the
Portsmouth Grammar School, (PGS) a direct performed by the amateur dramatic society.
grant grammar. I remained there until after A Soup and sandwich was well attended and thoroughly enjoyed. It was topped off
levels in 1966 by “monks” pudding from a recipe that Sue Stone had found in the Bere Regis
Dad was a cabinet maker, and later an antique recipe book.
furniture restorer, so unusually for that time we If interested in the WI please contact Di Pitts on 01929 471322
had wheels, one of Dad’s various, but usually
unreliable, delivery wagons. In them we made Meetings on the third Wednesday of the month at the Old Sports Club, North
weekend forays to the New Forest or Kingley Vale Street.
for walks in the countryside and picnics. Our speaker at our March meeting was Helen
Home life was very much centred around church Baggott, an editor, speaker and writer from Dorset.
and church activities. Dad and my late brother Her projects entitled “Posted in the Past” started
Jeremy (six years my senior) were both servers with a post card, bought by her father at a car
and Mum was on the PCC and ran a fellowship boot sale. Starting with a postcard from the early
group. 20 century, using genealogy she researches the
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families of sender and receiver to reveal their
Milton was close to the huge area of Eastney Marshes, and during the holidays
this was my brother Philip (three years older than me) and my playground, in stories.
which with friends, we made dens, explored abandoned boats, and had huge “A 10-year-old servant working for a laundress in
freedom, provided we were home in time for tea. 19 -entury Bath, the man who helped keep the
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doors to Great Ormond Street open for more than
School was quite academic, and in the early years I crawled up the lower
streams. I was in the school Scout Troop, and later in the Combined Cadet Force 30 years, a soldier killed in the First World War – all
(CCF). It was these organisations with interesting and challenging camps and connected by messages using the first real social
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activities which led to a late blossoming. We canoed the Rivers Severn and Wye, media phenomenon of the 20 century.”
walked over the Cairngorms, did adventurous training with the Coastguard and April will be our Annual Meeting with May’s meeting
with the Royal Marines. Never a great sportsman, I found my place eventually being a talk by Steve Belasco entitled “Confessions
with rowing and dinghy sailing, and, in the winter, in the ranks of the First Fifteen. of a Press Photographer”. A visit to Carey’s Secret Garden is also planned for May.
At the age of fifteen I decided to apply for an Army Scholarship for entry to Di Pitts.
Sandhurst. My eldest brother had gone to Sandhurst in 1960, and Phil was to
follow him in 1963. I was also interested in a military career so I sent off my

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