Catsfield

WI: The February meeting of the Catsfield WI opened with the traditional singing of ‘Jerusalem’. After the minutes of the previous meeting, we were reminded that we’ll be holding our annual Jumble Sale in the Village Hall on Saturday 16th March. Members are asked to start collecting jumble and also volunteers to help on the day will be required.

Our speaker this month was Ken Pollock with his ‘Tribute to Stanley Holloway’, a well-known actor/performer that (showing our age), many of us remembered well. Ken began with the ‘With a Little Bit of Luck’ from My Fair Lady and followed it with the famous monologue of ‘Albert and the Lion’ which gave great amusement, whether one had heard it before or not and he followed with a biography of this talented performer. Stanley was born in 1890 and by 1905 whilst working at Billingsgate Fish Market by day, he appeared as a singer on the stage at night. By 1914 he was touring in the USA and South America in a concert party but he returned to England to enlist as a soldier in WWl. He had married his first wife Queenie in 1913 and they had four children. After the war he returned to the stage in musicals and concert parties and by 1923 was a regular performer on BBC radio as a singer and later became well known for his monologues such as ‘Albert’ and ‘Sam, Sam, Pick up Thy Musket’ delivered with a broad northern accent. He appeared in several films from 1934 and aged 49 he was too old for active service in WW2 so he made propaganda movies for the cinema and continued appearing on the stage. In 1937 his wife Queenie died and in 1939 he married Violet Marion Lane (Laney) and they were married for 40 very happy years until his death in 1982, they had a son, Julian who also became an actor. Stanley’s most famous performance was in ‘My Fair Lady’ in 1956 on Broadway and later in London when he played Alfred Dolittle and subsequently, in the movie in 1964. For these performances he won an academy award for best supporting actor. Ken punctuated his talk by encouraging his audience to join him in singing many songs from WWl and with Jane and Ann to help him as Harold and William, he performed a Holloway favourite ‘The Battle of Hastings’.

The usual lovely tea-time spread followed and the raffle was drawn before we all headed for home. The next meeting will be at 2pm on Thursday 7th March when the speaker will be Helen Stockton who will be talking about ‘Rolo, the Literary Dog’. There will be a competition for the best Easter Card.

AGM: The AGM of the Village Hall Committee will be held in the hall at 7pm on Tuesday 12th March. Do come along and hear what’s been going on to maintain this hub of the village. Wine and nibbles will be served afterwards.