NEXT week, members and their partners will join with distinguished guests for our annual Summer Lunch, to be held at the King’s Court Hotel, Alcester. We shall enjoy good food and fellowship. At our recent meetings in Evesham we have enjoyed two presentations on subjects that proved fascinating.

The first was Early British Computing and the speaker was Peter Coast, a mathematician and computer expert.

Most of us were probably under the impression that “computing” is a very recent development, a product of the late 20th century. Peter took us back to the early 1700s and the Scottish mathematician John Napier who invented a manually-operated device which calculated products and quotients, and could be used to calculate square roots. This became known as Napier’s Bones. A hundred years later, the English polymath, Charles Babbage (regarded as the “father of the computer”) devised his Difference Engine – a calculating device incorporating the essential elements of modern electronic computers but mechanical in operation.

Peter also talked about LEO – Lyon’s Electronic Office, developed for the London food and catering company which was the first application of computing for commercial management.

The second speaker was John Crew, whom we were pleased to welcome from the Chipping Campden Probus Club. John told us of the life, work and adventures of Kenneth Horatio Wallis, who died just four years ago.

Ken Wallis was an engineer, an inventor, an aviator and an autogiro world record holder.

John’s talk began with James Bond. In the film You Only Live Twice, Bond is seen flying an autogiro, an aircraft which shares characteristics of the helicopter but with significant operational differences. The machine in the film was built by Wallis and flown by him (so Ken Wallis was also a stunt double for 007). Wallis established a company to make autogiros and it was when flying his own aircraft that he acquired his collection of nine world records, his last being obtained at the age of 89.

Ken Wallis saw WWII service in the RAF, reaching the rank of Wing Commander. He joined Bomber Command and was seconded to the US Strategic Air Command.

Peter had met Ken Wallis on two occasions. It was clear that these were very important events in Peter’s life. He gave a very graphic description of the way Wallis’s aviation and engineering enthusiasms overflowed into his personal life.

We shall be back at The Evesham Rowing Club on 29 June. Our speaker will be Bert Hawkes who will talk about Art of the Low Countries. Our website can be found at www.eveshamprobus.co.uk.

GRENVILLE BURROWS