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We celebrated our 600th meeting in style at the Royal Hotel in Winchester.
Following registration the meeting was held in the Winton Room presided over by Tony Smith at his last meeting of the year as Circle President. There were 35 Winchester Brothers present and 34 visitors. If you would like a copy of the minutes of the meeting click here.

Prior to dinner, drinks were served in the hotel lounge where we were joined by our guest Monsignor Peter Doyle, parish priest of St Peters in Winchester.

An excellent Dinner was served in the atmospheric Darials Room. To print a copy of the Souvenir Menu Card click here. Grace before and after dinner was said by Reverend Bro. Ted Hogan.



Following dinner Brother President welcomed the guests Fr Peter, Provincial President Alan McEwen and Province 11 Director Faris Bashoo and the visitors, on behalf of all the Brothers of the City of Winchester Circle. In his speech he paid tribute to the founding Brothers and referred to the inaugural meeting 53 years earlier on the 6th November 1952 and how the Circle had stood the test of time. Referring to the Times newspaper published on the day of the first meeting he listed several news topics of that day. Namely, that Winston Churchill was premier at the time and Anthony Eden his foreign minister was busy trying to avert a conflict with Egypt. General Eisenhower had been elected President of the USA and there had just been a Tsunami in the Pacific region. At this time the National Health Service was just 4 years old and in the previous winter there had been several thousand deaths in London from smog.

Returning to 2005. Thanks were given to Brother Vice President Mark for organising the event, to Brother John Marchesi for organising the raffle and to the staff and management of the hotel for looking after us so well.

Brother President paid tribute to Fr Peter referring to him as "the only Parish Priest he ever wanted" and thanked him for his continued support. He then went on to congratulate Brother Alan on the success of his year as Provincial President and in particular the considerable number of visits made during the prodeeding 11 months. Last but not least Brother Faris for his service to the association as Director of Province 11. He finished by proposing the toast to "Our invited guests and visitors".

Brother Alan, responded on behalf of the visitors in his inimitable style and proposed the toast to "The Brothers of the City of Winchester Circle.

The final address was made by Brother Faris who spoke eloquently and with considerable knowledge about the Circle before proposing the final toast of the evening "The City of Winchester Circle".

During the evening Brother Membership and Charity Officer John Marchesi, with the impressive electronic tombola gizzmo, organised the raffle that raised a considerable amount for the President's Charity the Make a Wish Foundation.

At the Council meeting following the 600th meeting Brother President presented the Circle with an original copy of the Times newspaper dated 6th November 1952, a gift from himself and Pam, as a memento of the occasion.