Melbourn and Meldreth Lunch Club Lunch Club is held every Thursday at Vicarage Close. The centre is open from 11.30am and lunch is served at 12. We are usually finished by 1pm but everyone is welcome to sit and chat until 1.30pm. It is a very informal gathering that hopes to provide the chance for the older members of our community to have a reasonably priced lunch and socialise with their peers. The club is run by Nikki and Julie, two Melbourn based mums. It is open to anybody that wishes to join us (space permitting). Cost for lunch, desert and a tea or coffee is £5 which is payable on the day. All we ask is that you telephone us on the number below if you are not able to attend. We can provide transport to and from lunch club for those that need it. Diabetic, vegetarian and other dietary requirements can be catered for if you inform us of your needs. Our telephone number is 07599292327 Julie or Nikki will always try to answer your call but will always listen to messages and call back if requested. We look forward to seeing you.
Riding For The Disabled Association Incorporating Driving Iceni Group Riding for the Disabled Walk beside a child or lead a pony We desperately need your help at the South Cambridgeshire Equestrian Centre Barrington On Tuesday’s 9.45–11.45am In term time only Please contact Diana Allan 01638 572044 or Thalia Myers 07850 477550
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www.melbourncambridge.co.uk
Profile Barbara Mackellar Barbara Hutton was born in 1935 in Branspeth, Co.Durham, the eldest of three children. Her father was a mining engineer, a very gifted and musical man whilst her mother was artistic, good at all crafts, needlework etc. Living in part of a large old farmhouse she grew up with a good knowledge of the countryside. Like many of us who lived through the war years she has vivid memories – of food shortages and of the bombing of Tyneside. Her father trained the Home Guard and they would dedicate their shooting practice to the killing of rabbits that found their way into the pot! She attended Durham Girls Grammar School and then Sunderland Art School. There she found herself in the company of high fliers such as the sculptor Fenwick Lawson and soon felt that she was out of her depth amongst such brilliance! In those days there was very little careers advice for girls – you became a teacher or a nurse. One day she saw a poster of white uniformed girls marching in Valetta and on an impulse she signed up to become a WREN, so 1954 found her at Burfield doing her training as a Wren weapons analyst. She worked for 4½ years with pilots of the Fleet Air Arm largely keeping track of the Russians in the North Sea – this was during the Cold War when there was a very real threat. Then came the crisis in Northern Ireland and she was sent there, quite a dangerous posting. The WRENS were not allowed to go out at night unless accompanied by a male colleague. Barbara was doing a Spanish course and Flt Sgt Iain MacKellar was doing a German course so he became her escort. She thought he was quite nice, but she had joined the Navy to see the world, not to get married! Then came the Suez crisis and she was posted to Malta – dream come true, there she was – girl in white uniform walking down the street in Valetta! Barbara’s family were devoutly Christian and so she was in the habit of going to church and became very friendly with the base chaplain. He was an historian and took pleasure in introducing her to the wealth of Maltese history. During her time on the island she and two girl friends would take their leave periods in North Africa working in orphanages, clinics and on farm projects alongside the missionaries. I have omitted to say that throughout her teens her father had insisted on her spending every summer in Lorraine on an exchange organised by the mining communities of Durham and Northern France, so Barbara was fluent in French, the language of most of North Africa. Eventually she began to feel she had spent too much time being involved with killing people and it was time to do something constructive. She contacted the Hackney Hospital in London asking if she could train as a nurse for the North African Mission, but was told that it was midwives that were needed. Leaving the Navy she arrived in the East End of London where life was exactly like the TV show Call the Midwife! She did a two-year midwifery course and taking her final exam on a Wednesday morning, she flew out to Tangier in the afternoon and was on the ward Thursday morning.
