Quedgeley WI

After our annual outing in August it was back to normal for our September meeting. We were shown the new rose bowl purchased in memory of Janet Freemantle, one of our members who had recently passed away. In August we had hosted the Group Party and had a tombola stall at the Quedgeley Show. There is another theatre trip to Malvern planned and as this is our centenary year we have been invited by the Gloucestershire Federation to have a guided tour of WI House followed by refreshments. Our speaker was Paul Murphy with his talk on The Amazing Charlie Chaplin, born into poverty in 1889 supposedly in London but some evidence showed he was born in Birmingham. His father was a music hall entertainer and his mother was a singer. When his father died his mother got into financial difficulties and Charlie and his brother along with their mother went into the workhouse twice before Charlie was nine. He began his stage career at the age of four and in his twenties was taken on by Fred Karno and went to America. Charlie’s life is so extensive that we only heard the first part of it and need to have another talk to find out how Charlie became to be such a versatile entertainer before his death in 1977. Next month we will be hearing from an Energy Advisor and if anyone would like to come along to our meetings they will be made very welcome.