Talks

Life Without the BBC? A cartoon of a dapper Lord Reith leaning on BBC House set John’s tone for his talk. Reith’s 1922 mission statement for the new BBC Company was to ‘Inform, Educate and Entertain’ guiding the activities of

After graduating in Medicine from St Andrews and Dundee Universities, Gordon joined the University Department of Medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1974, training in general medicine with interests in haemophilia and thrombosis. He was appointed consultant in 1985; Co-Director

Tales of a Herald Reporter Catriona made clear right from the beginning of the existential threat facing newspapers.  Last year she went to give school girls a talk on Women in Journalism and asked the girls how many read a

John McCormick   After graduating from Glasgow University, John taught history in a Glasgow comprehensive school for two years before joining the BBC’s Education Department. He became a member of BBC Scotland’s Management Team in 1982 and moved to London in

Catriona is a reporter and columnist for the Herald and Times newspaper group. She is currently Chief Reporter and columnist for the Glasgow Times and writes a twice-weekly column for The Herald.  She specialises in education, is the Glasgow Times’s

The Rocket that eats itself Kelvin Probus members now know why the phrase ‘It’s not rocket science!’ gets bandied about so often.  Patrick’s talk on rockets was a no holds barred exposefor a lay audience on rocket science.  This included

Dr Patrick Harkness is from Ballyclog, in Co. Tyrone. Patrick obtained a MEng degree in Aeronautical Engineering from The Queen’s University of Belfast in 2003 and a PhD in space debris mitigation from Cranfield University in 2007. He is now

Improving the economic and environmental sustainability of a Scottish Hill Farm This talk by Dr John Holland was well outside the normal familiarity of most of our urban members.  He was telling us about the Scotland’s Rural College’s hill farm

Ewen was brought up on a small holding near Milton of Campsie.  He started work as an apprentice gardener in Glasgow’s Parks Department in 1970. He worked mainly in Bellahouston Park, Rosshall Park and the Botanic Gardens at this time.

Introduction to Genealogy Graham introduced his subject by defining the difference between genealogy and family history.  In brief, genealogy is the skeleton, the bones of Family History on which the flesh is added.  A simple and clear cut definition as