President: Sir John Meurig Thomas
Secretary: Mrs Rosalie Lamburn
This year has seen the usual variety in our programme. The 1998 Dinner was held in the Old Library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The guest speaker was Dr D Gareth Edwards, formerly Dean of the Education Department at Aberystwyth. Sir John Meurig Thomas addressed the gathering and the singing was led by Teifion Thomas. In January 1998 Dr Tom Little, CBE addressed us on the subject of Food at the Unilever Centre, Colworth House, Bedfordshire, a particularly appropriate venue in which to hold the Roy Pinsent Memorial Lecture since it had been Roy’s place of work. George Galliver, Roy’s friend, had arranged for former colleagues to be present at the lecture.
The summer programme included a garden party in Mogerhanger, a day in Berkhamsted guided by Professor Emrys Jones and a wine tasting at the Frithsden Vineyard. The first week in August saw visits to the Llangefni Eisteddfod and to London on 5th August, to a Prom Concert at the Royal Albert Hall with the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano. The concert opened with Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony No 10, the only movement completed before his death in 1911. The soloist for Berg’s Violin Concerto was Kyung-Wha Chung. This concerto was written as a result of the tragic death of 18 year old Manon, the daughter of Mahler’s widow, inscribed, “To the memory of an angel.” After the ‘death-haunted works’ of the first half came Beethoven’s Symphony No 7, which obviously gave as much pleasure to the performers as it did to the audience – an exciting climax to a very enjoyable evening.
In September Alun Evans and Rosalie organised a weekend for the Branch in Wiltshire. The group walked part of the Ridgeway, visited a staircase of locks, spent time at the site of Avebury, visited a steaming day of the Crofton Beam Engines, and socialised with new participants at the Castle and Ball Hotel in Marlborough.
Aber-Anglia broke new ground this year in October by holding a literary lunch at Pembroke College, in place of the more traditional dinner. Sir John and Lady Margaret Thomas presided over a gathering of 35 in the Old Library dining room. Deian Hopkin introduced two fellow Aber graduates of the 60s, Manon Rhys, Welsh language novelist and script writer for Pobl y Cwm, and Elaine Storkey, President of the Tear Fund and a regular broadcaster on Thought for the Day. Manon and Elaine reflected on their personal literary journeys and read from their work. Their starting points had been quite different: Manon, the Welsh novel narrative, expressed through dialect; Elaine, who chose to work through logical argument based on an evolving credo. However, we came to see a fusion both through their reflection and in the considerable discussion which followed, thus it was that some three hours later Deian brought the proceedings to a close and we all reflected that this had been an enjoyable and thought-provoking experience.