You can link directly to other sections of this page here:
- New Members
- Committee members and roles
- Constitution and Application Form
As well as link directly our new sections Memories and Our Members
An Introduction to our New President
Born 1939 in Karachi (India) to Scottish parents. Arrived in the UK in 1942/43 when my father was posted home. We lived at various RAF stations in the UK and when dad had another tour, in Egypt.
My family eventually took root in and around Blackpool where I attended a Secondary Modern School and eventually a Technical College where I gained a number of GCE’s.
These GCE’s were sufficient to allow me entry into the RAF as a RADAR mechanic and later as a fitter (engineer). My RAF career took me all around the UK and middle east working on aircraft and in the engineering workshops. I completed a tour in Germany after meeting and marrying my wife Eve who was at that time a member of the WRAF.
We had our first son in Germany and our second when we returned home. My final move in the forces was to RAF Boscombe Down where I first headed up a team to bring into service the MARTEL air to ground missile and when that was completed I moved to carry out RADHAZ testing on various aircraft and equipments.
After 22yrs service and the end of my career in the service, I obtained a job with the then ‘Plessey Assessment Services’ carrying out EMC testing and moved to our present address in Sarisbury Green.
My passion has always been the sea and we have owned a number of sailing yachts which we have cruised locally and to the near continent. Unfortunately, old age has meant progressing to a power boat, which at least keeps us on the water.
I have been a member of Probus for a number of years, many of these as Treasurer and lately as Vice President and now in 2022 as President.
Richard
A Message from our Past President
This is Tim with his wife Liz. They were married 57 years ago.
It’s been a difficult year because of COVID. We were not able to hold half our normal meetings though we did use Zoom for some of them. A couple of other meetings were held very informally with members bringing their own food. But we did manage to hold several “normal” meetings with first class speakers.
Sadly our caterer, Anne, had an accident and we needed to find a new one at short noice. We were very lucky to find Morven Brown who has served us brilliantly.
Overall, despite the difficulties, morale has held up very well and our recent meeFngs had been most successful. We had plenty of socialising, good food and interesFng speakers. As well as our normal meeFngs we also had a most successful Summer Event hosted by Graham Adams and a theatre trip to Chichester to see “South Pacific” which was well supported and much enjoyed.
Then in November we had the Ladies Dinner at Warsash Sailing Club which again went very well.
We were very sorry to lose some of our members, David Douglas, Colin Orpe, David Olley, David Price. Also our member John Burwell passed away. They will be greatly missed. On the positive side we have been joined by several new members, bringing new new ideas and enthusiasm.
We have already been planning events for the forthcoming year, including lunch at 141, a five day trip to Eastbourne and the Summer Event in June We are hoping that in all respects it will be possible for normal service resume as soon as possible.
I have been very fortunate to be supported by an excellent team. Derek Treagus works indefatigably to maintain our Website / Newsletter, Chris Collier keeps finding us speakers and planning future meetings, Tony Hall takes care of our finances and Howard Parret helps out with the treasury and secretarial functions. Our Past President, Lionel Jacobs, is always helpful – especially keeping in touch with any member who is unwell.
Richaed Aitken, our Vice President was particularly helpful organising the Ladies Dinner, and Colin Smith, who as Secretary of our club, endeavours to keep all our membership and meeting records up to date and reminds us all of meetings etc.
Tim Mitchell
President, Probus Club of Locksheath, 2021 – 2022
Click to see a full list of Past Presidents
Our most recent members
The photos above are from the New Members Welcome held on December 20th 2019, you can also find them in the Photos section of this website.
New members are asked to provide a short resume as well as doing a two minute introduction at their first Probus meeting as an ‘official member’
Brian Gray
I was born in Southampton in 1940! brought up in Hamble and have lived in Locks Heath since 1966.
I attended at a private school in Southampton and left (no qualifications) to start an engineering apprenticeship at Air Service Training (AST) in Hamble. AST became Petters Ltd and I joined the Refrigeration Service Department, originally as a service engineer, left after 21 years as the Service Superintendent.
I then joined another Refrigeration Service company as Service Director, finally forming my own Refrigeration Service Company in 1989 and retiring in 2007.
Married to Sue since 1996, We have five adult children (Sue 3, Me 2) and a total of nine Grandchildren
Hobby’s include Travel, DIY projects, Art, a little golf, general household and gardening duties, and of course Grandchildren!
I am a Member of St Johns Church Locks Heath, Warsash Art Group, and various other interests including Freemasonry
I presented a talk in December 2021 to PROBUS in Titled “Untold Stories of Small Boats at War’
Peter Praine
I was born on the 28th May 1941 and have lived in Southampton all my life. I have been married To Sandy for 58 years and we have three sons and five Grandsons.
I started as an apprentice at sixteen as a boat builder and I have been self-employed since I was twenty two. Always working on my tools, I formed Solent Kitchen Design Ltd in 1970 with Sandy running office and accounts and a showroom Manager responsible for final designs.
Initially with two ladies were employed drawing by hand but subsequently we moved on to use a Computer Aided Design (CAD) System.
Whilst I have always been responsible for Site Surveys, workshop and tradesmen, my oldest Son Davis and his wife run the Company.
My Leisure time has been spread over different interests, Fly Fishing, Skiing, Classic cars and Boating. (I have been a member of the Royal Southern Yacht Club for thirty years) and have spent time in the Northern Territories.
Martin Read
I was born in Dulwich Hospital in South London in 1956, andgrew up in and around Camberwell and Peckham. My early years were dominated by either playing or watching football. I lived next door to Dulwich Hamlet and the local professional club was Millwall, and I regularly visited both from a young age. My first job was as a Saturday assistant at Woolworths in Peckham. I went to the local grammar school, and then obtained a degree in business from South Bank Polytechnic. After a year living in a kibbutz in Israel, I went to Birmingham University and obtained a Master’s degree in Operational Research. More importantly I met my wife Ann whilst at Birmingham University.
My first graduate job was developing mathematical models of proposed defence systems for the Ministry of Defence, to establish their effectiveness before development. I then did similar work for a defence consultancy and then at British Aerospace. At British Aerospace I also became involved in supporting the procurement decision making process at the Ministry of Defence, using mathematical models of group decision making. This led to the setting up of a group decision making consultancy with a colleague, and together we helped support decision making groups in pharmaceuticals, chemicals and government agencies in the UK, US and Europe using keypads similar to that used for ‘ask the audience’ in ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’.
Six years later I had 2 young children and wanted to reduce my travelling and I joined Railtrack at the time of the railway privatisation. My job title was Passenger Charges Compilation Manager, and I was responsible for a group of analysts, accountants and software engineers to determine the cost of using the tracks by the new train operating companies. After a couple of years, I decided the newly privatised railway industry wasn’t for me, so I made my final career change in 1996, and joined the University of Portsmouth as a Lecturer in Information Systems and Project Management, and we moved from Farnborough to Whiteley, which was meant to be temporary. Eight years later I had completed my PhD and became Head of Department for Strategy and Business Systems, responsible for 50 lecturers and professors and 1200 students and their university experience. My last role at the University was Head of Postgraduate Programmes, which enabled me to travel to India, China, Africa and the Middle East to support recruitment of postgraduate students. I retired from the university in 2016.
Now, I still do a little work for the University, mainly supervising postgraduate dissertations, and I am alsooccasionally involved in university inspections, mostly overseas. I have had a variety of volunteering roles; I have been a Citizens Advice Advisor, Garden Guide at Hinton Ampner, and more recently I volunteered at the Covid Vaccination Centre at Fareham Community Hospital. I play badminton, short tennis, golf (badly), I go rambling and even try to do a bit of running and have now completed over 100 parkruns. I’m also a season ticket holder at Southampton. And we still live in the same Whiteley house that we moved to in 1996
Martin Moore
I was born in Hemel Hempstead and then moved to the East Midlands. For the past 35 years I have lived in Warsash.
My interest in the sea began when I was14 and I went to HMS Conway for 3 years.In 1971, I joined the Ocean Steamship Co. sailing on general cargo ships to the Far East and West Africa. In 1978 I transferred to container ships sailing on the Liverpool Bay class ships from Southampton to the Far East. My first command was Liverpool Bay with P&O Containers.
Following a number of take-overs and mergers, I was employed by Maersk Line retiring in 2018 after 20 years as Captain.
I met my wife at the College of Maritime Studies when I was taking my Masters. We were married in 1985, and Warsash became my home. Our son and daughter grew up here and have since moved away from the area.
Ron Loveless
I was born in 1942 at Sway in the New Forest. I attended Ashley Secondary School and, to my father’s dismay, I left with no qualifications.
I became a radio and TV engineer in Lymington where my first job was repairing wind-up gramophones, then the first transistor radios and TV’s.
After my apprenticeship finished, I joined Mullards / Philips in Southampton as an electronics engineer. I obtained an HNC in electronics and became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. At Philips I specialised in instrumentation, running a department involved with National Standards. As you can see, I was what they refer to as ‘a late developer’!
In the meantime Sandy and I got married and we have two daughters. We have lived around the Southampton area, spending the last twenty years in Barton on Sea/ New Milton. In August we moved to Locks Heath to be nearer to our family.
Anyway back to my career, I took advantage of a management buyout scheme setting up a business with two other directors in Romsey. I became the Company Secretary and Sales and Marketing Director which resulted in quite a learning curve, as you can imagine.
The company expanded quickly with laboratories in Chesterfield, Newcastle and Cardiff with a staff of 100 and turning over in excess of 3 Million p.a.. The company was eventually bought by a major U.K. engineering company who allowed me to carry on in my role.
On my first retirement, many of our major clients persuaded me to start up my own business which I did. I bought a company ‘off the shelf’ where you inherit the name which in this case was Fantime. Sandy always said it sounded like a business selling party balloons not calibration! I enjoyed this new situation for 3 years before retiring properly and getting down to the important business of playing golf 3 times a week.
From an early age, I spent most of my spare time playing all types of sport with cricket being my main passion. During this time I filled most official positions in club sports from President, Chairman, and various committee positions which I enjoyed.
Since retirement I have been involved as Chairman and Trustee to the New Forest and Hampshire Citizen’s Advice Bureau. In all the situations in which I have been involved, I, along with some marvellous people, I have organised fund raising activities generating thousands of pounds for various charities. In the past few years my wife Sandy and I became involved with The Alzheimer’s Society and we ran a monthly group providing entertainment and afternoon tea for people with dementia and their carers.
See if you can spot a reference to Ron in this link
Ian Stephens
My name is Ian Geoffrey Stephens and I was born in Ealing, London W5 on 30th October 1947. My early education was in Hanwell W7 and at the age of 13 my parents bought a small holding in Milford on Sea. I finished my education at Ashley County secondary school leaving at very short notice at the age of 15 to help on the farm when dad hurt his shoulder falling from a horse.
I had various jobs mainly driving until starting work on the Hants & Dorset buses as a conductor based in Lymington in 1969. In September 1970 I passed my driving PSV test and worked on the buses transferring to Southampton depot in 1973 and staying until 1979 when I went to work for Eassons Coaches (Doug Easson).
I stayed with them until 2013 doing a variety of coach work including school runs, works contracts, private hire and holiday tours all over the UK and lots of Europe.
Doug and Ralph Easson retired and sold the business to Coliseum coaches who I worked for until I retired from full time but continued driving part time for Coliseum, Princess and Angela coaches before fully retiring in November 2018.
A very responsible job that I enjoyed for a total of almost 50 years. (but no gold watch.)
Nick Hammond
I was born and raised in East Anglia on my father’s smallholding. He was an engineer but also looked after 13 acres, a dozen pigs, several hundred chickens and a few cattle as a hobby. I didn’t much care for school and was a lot happier outdoors tending the animals. I failed my 11 plus but then went on to became head boy of my Secondary School, where I was lucky to have an inspirational Physics teacher who encouraged me to aim for university.
He and I hitch hiked to the Italian Grand Prix in 1970 where I fell in love with Italy and Alfa Romeo cars.
I got into University where I graduated with a degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering. I then went to Teacher Training College and qualifies as a Physics and Outdoor Education teacher. That summer I secured a place with Camp America and spent my summer holiday as a Pioneer Leader at a summer camp in Massachusetts. Happy days.
My first job as a teacher was at well known, liberal minded school in Totnes. It is now closed!
I then became a Housemaster at a boys’ boarding school in North Wales teaching Physics and Sports. That school is now also closed! My final teaching job was in Crediton during which time I stumbled upon Royal Navy trainees visiting Exeter Quay on Picket boats for a weekend expedition. They were clearly having a lot more fun than I was so I decided there and then to join up. That was in 1980, and with hindsight I should have joined after, or before, university.
After completing basic RN training I was posted to HMS xxxxxxx. A fellow adventurer and myself planned and executed a 3-week expedition to Nepal for a trek in the Annapurna foothills. More happy days. I then went to sea in HMS xxxxxxx where I discovered the world of military meteorology and oceanography (METOC). I quickly got myself selected for training in this specialist field to support Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Air Warfare.
Whilst undergoing this training at RNAS xxxxxx I met my wife, also RN. More happy days. I honed my METOC skills at RNAS xxxxx and Fleet HQ in London. In 1988 I was posted, married accompanied, to the NATO HQ near Lisbon (Portugal). Two years in the sun with my, now civilian, wife. Yet more happy days. Whilst there I had time to organise SODS operas, Olympiads and an expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
I then went to the Naval College for staff training. (Middle management training) On completion I was appointed as Staff METOC to HMS xxxxxx. This was a most exciting time; supporting harriers and helicopters conducting operational ASW and AAW to find and trail submarines in the North Atlantic and monitor and supress hostile activity during the Balkans war. HMS xxxxxx then embarked on a 6-month deployment to the Far East where my global METOC skills were further developed. Somehow during this period, when I was mostly at sea, we managed to start a family.
In 1994, as a family, I was posted to the NATO HQ near Naples ( Italy) for nearly 4, very happy, years. As well as supporting NATO forces and going to sea with the US Navy’s 6th Fleet I headed a multi-national team of military and civilian scientists in developing a new concept for providing operational support to NATO forces called Rapid Environmental Assessment. In any spare time, family Hammond travelled extensively in Italy and neighbouring countries.
On return to the UK, I was honoured with an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list. This was for my work in leading the team that evolved and delivered the REA Concept of Operations.
Next came a spell in the MOD. Not happy days. To my surprise I persuaded the Appointer to send me on a family accompanied posting to the NATO HQ in Norfolk, Virginia (USA). Happy days were back.
We were there for the 2000 Millennium celebrations and, more dramatically, 9/11. Once again, I was able to go to sea with the US Navy’s 2nd Fleet for military training and exercise.
During our 2+ years in the States we travelled to Florida, Canada (East and West), California and several of the national parks. On return to the UK, I transferred to the MOD as a Civil Servant desk officer at the Navy Command HQ. I retired in 2015.
To see previous member introductions, please visit the Our Members section of our Archive
If you too would like to be a member of our club, you can find an application form at the end of this section or click on the link here
Committee
The club is run by an elected committee
| Main Committee | |
| President | Howard Parrett |
| Vice President | Jim Dodd |
| Past President | Richard Aitken |
| Secretary | Colin Smith |
| Speaker Coordinator | Chris Collier |
| Website and News emails | Derek Treagus |
| Visits Coordinators | Mike Cresswell Graham Adams |
| Assistant Secretary | Martin Moore |
| Treasurer | Martin Read |
| Ad Hoc Committee | |
| Ladies Dinner Organiser | Chris Collier |
| Theatre Visits | Peter Ellerton |
| Summer Event Organiser | Graham Adams |
| Lunch / Dinner Visits | Mike Cresswell |
| Holiday Organiser | tbc |
Constitution
You can download a copy of the constitution from here.
List of members
Please contact the club secretary or email probuslocksheath@gmail.com for a list of current members
Application Form
New members are asked to provide short background details by printing out and filling in this application form.