Many of us were fortunate to see Vartan conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra on the 16th June, at Central Hall Westminster.  M Magazine of PRS met with Vartan Melkonian; see the interviews, part one and part two, and view him conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra with excerpts of his Water Symphony – Amwaj, staged at the Central Hall Westminster.

The event was a two-day celebration commemorating “Our Water, Our Life” initiative, sponsored by BMG Foundation, the first  day being held at the BMG GCC Polo Match at Windsor in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II.  

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Barbara Mary Ruston 1921 - 2010

Below is Barbara's eulogy, prepared and read by her friend Nigel Ince at her funeral on Friday 12 March:  

Barbara lived in Chenies for more than fifty years but her memories of, and love for the village went back over almost the whole of her long life.

She was born in Thornton Heath in 1921, but shortly after, when she was only a babe in arms, her parents moved to Amersham. In those days it was, she told me, the in thing to take the train to Chalfont Road, now called Chalfont & Latimer, and walk over the fields and through the woods to Chenies for a Watercress Tea. Chenies, it seems, was noted for watercress teas and she recalled sitting in her pushchair in a cottage garden where there was a rose pergola. After tea the walk continued to Chorleywood from where they returned, by train, to Amersham.

From an early age Barbara involved herself in activities of all kinds, as she continued to do throughout her life. In 1928, age six, she joined the Amersham on the Hill Brownie Pack and by the time she left, four years later, to join the Girl Guides she had won quite an armful of badges. The Golden Bar, the Golden Hand, House Orderly, Collectors, Weavers, First Aider, Gardeners, Artist and Thrift.  At that time Chenies had a swimming pool, by the river and the cottages at Chenies Bottom. When she was about nine Barbara and her brother, Leonard, who was about five years older than her, together with some friends came over for a swim. She said she only came once and that was enough, the water was greenish black, quite opaque and cold beyond belief!

Barbara went to Berkhamsted Girls but sadly when she was only sixteen her father, who was a shipping broker, died and she had to leave school. In 1938 she joined Statter Switchgear in Little Chalfont where she stayed throughout the war and after serving at various times as project Manager and Personal Assistant to Colonel Marston, The Managing Director. In the late sixties she transferred her talents to the construction industry and in 1976 was appointed Managing Director of Callan Construction Limited, finally retiring in 1981.
 
Barbara, with her mother, came to live at 41 Chenies in 1959 and quickly became an active member of the local community. She was Clerk to the Chenies Parish Council from 1963 to 1968 and again from 1991 until 2000. When she retired in 1968 James Doig, the Chairman of the Council said, “She will be almost impossible to replace, it will be very difficult to find anyone who is so knowledgeable and efficient.” She was appointed a trustee of The Countess of Warwick Charity in 1966 and it’s correspondent in 1968 and continued in this responsibility until 2002.

She was an active member of the W I and was very involved with the Church flower rota and particularly the Easter lilies. Her many other interests included the monthly sewing circle with Heather Ensor and others and, with Gerda Wittwer making superb sugar flowers for the decoration of special cakes. She always enjoyed an outdoor life and country pursuits and in her youth she had been a keen rider and hunted with the Old Berkeley. Latterly, when the hunt met in the village, Stuart Fitch always arranged that the Huntsman would blow as the hounds passed her house. At a charity auction in the village she purchased “A Drive through the Bluebells” and somewhat precariously seated in the carriage greatly enjoyed her ride through the woods when the bluebells were in full flower.

She recorded her holidays and events in the village with her cine camera including the presentations at the first two Best kept Village competitions that we won in 1966 and 1967, The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh passing through the village en route for a visit to Latimer Camp cheered by lines of school children on each side of the road, Morris dancers performing on the green and “The Battle of Chenies” plus numerous shots of her Scotties in deep snow in Holloway lane.

Animals were an important part of her life and apart from her Scotties and dachshunds there were the Geese, chickens and bantams and Grumpy and Hatty, the tortoises, and in season the hatch of tadpoles in her little pond, and, of course the wild birds at 41 Chenies were, without doubt, the best fed in the whole of Buckinghamshire! Additionally at one time she had also kept bees in Mountwood.

She always had an interest modern technology and was for a number of years a member of the TV Audience Measurement Panel but it was for her generosity, thoughtfulness and interest that she took in everything and everybody that she will be remembered. Her memory was legendary and she was an unfailing source of information on people and events in Chenies. She never forgot a birthday and for new babies there would always be a little gift She went to enormous lengths to find exactly the right gift for every occasion.

Barbara gave a great deal of her time to visiting old friends particularly those in retirement homes and for those that became housebound, as she was; she tried to find something special for them, for example a jigsaw designed to be done on ones knee. Even when she had had several periods in hospital herself and her movement became very restricted she still gave a great deal of thought for others. 

Was it a very early experience of hers that laid the foundations of this facet of her character? When she was five years old she accompanied her mother on a visit to her brother in hospital. On arriving at his ward her mother gave her two bags of sweets and told her to go round the other wards and offer a fruit drop to ladies and an acid drop to the men. All went well until she came running back to her mother to say that one man didn’t want an acid drop, he wanted a fruit drop, would this be all right!

Barbara enjoyed being able to see from her chair the flag flying on the tower from which she could tell the direction of the wind, except in Lent when no flag flies. Some years ago she gave me a card on which was listed the type of flag and the days on which it could be flown according to the Diocese. Among the list of Saints days and sundry Royal occasions was “Flag of St George  - death or funeral of a well known member of the Parish”

Well, we are now in Lent so no flag can fly on the tower but the flag of St George is flying at the bottom of the drive and it flies to honour the memory of a very special Lady and a much loved friend.   
  
Nigel Ince 

Ernie Adcock - very sadly we have to report the recent death of Ernie Adcock of No. 24 The Green.

Ernie has been a longstanding resident of the village and contributed much to village life over the years, most especially at the Cricket Club.  He was a vibrant and colourful character and will be sadly missed.

Condolences to Mary and the family.

Below is Ernie's Tribute, read by the Reverend Malcolm Hazell at his funeral on Monday 23 November:
 

Tribute: Ernie Adcock 1924-2009

I am very grateful to Peter Hood and Joan and, of course, Mary who enabled me to put together this tribute to Ernie:

Ernie was born in May 1924 in Radlett. He was brought up in Croxley Green, was part of the choir at All Saints and was confirmed in 1935. On leaving school Ernie worked for Dickinsons, making Basildon Bond paper.

During the war, Ernie joined the Royal Navy and was involved in the D Day landings. His landing craft left Portsmouth and moved out into the Channel but due to bad weather stayed just off the coast of the Isle of Wight for 24 hours. He set off again the next day but was turned back. He was then directed to Falmouth to transport US 1st Airborne (they had run out of planes!) and landed them at Omaha Beach that had already been taken.

Ernie told stories of time on leave. Apparently Chenies had great appeal to servicemen due to the ATS girls based at Latimer so the Red Lion became the destination and was where Mary and Ernie met and where they were later married in 1951 at St. Michaels Church.

After the war Ernie’s career with a company based in Kings Langley introduced him to Pre-stressed Concrete – steel reinforced concrete enabling buildings and bridges to be built a bit like Lego. His work took him all over the world to America, Bogota, South America sometimes for long periods. Mary came home some days to find a note saying that Ernie would be gone for severalweeks in some far flung location. Ernie was also very involved in the building of our very own Barbican Centre.

On retirement he did a massive amount of maintenance work at the Cricket Club (although he never played himself). He was a life member and even had a gate named after him (Adcock gate). When not up at the Cricket Club, he would be in his garden. He was a gregarious character and spoke to everyone who passed him when he was in the garden. Joan, a neighbour backing onto his garden, was kept in a good supply of vegetables and Ernie showed practical kindness by growing leeks just for her even though Mary and he didn’t like them.

Ernie and Mary loved going down to Swanage where they had a beech hut and boat. Ernie loved fishing for sea bass. They spent as much time as possible down in Swanage and loved the social life of the Conservative Club and British Legion in Swanage.

Ernie was an entertaining, well carved, character with a great fund of stories to draw on. He was not unduly worried to be confined to the facts of the situation if it enhanced the telling of the tale. Since this summer Ernie has not been well and lost his fight with cancer on 9th November. Thank you to so many here who visited him and transported Mary during this time.

Chenies Village will be the poorer without Ernie and Back Lane will be a quiet place without him hailing us from his garden.                   

Jack, who died on 10th April aged 87 had an interesting and varied life but will be remembered most particularly in Chenies for all that he did for the village and those who live in it.

He served in the Royal Navy during the war and spent a considerable time on the convoys to Russia, subsequently being awarded a Russian War Medal. After the war he turned to agriculture, firstly in Devon before moving to Chenies and Little Greenstreet Farm.

For many years he served on the committee of the Village Society of which he was Chairman for some time and he was also a Parish Councillor for more than a decade. Jack was a keen member and Hon. Vice president of the Cricket Club and in the early sixties ran the Boys Club.

Many of us will remember his cheery smile as he managed his white elephant and bookstall at the produce show, selling poppies in November each year or dispensing his mulled wine at the Christmas parties.

In the early nineties he suffered a major stroke from which he made a remarkable recovery and it was not too many months before he was back giving lifts to all who needed them in his somewhat varied cars!

Jack and Barbara were married for sixty-three years and celebrated their Diamond Wedding in 2005.

Jack cared for and made a very considerable contribution to the village in many ways and he will be much missed. 

Pensioners Bill Atkins (left) and Joe Goodman (right) have between them been ringing the changes for 100 years.