General Meetings
General meetings of Haddenham u3a usually have a guest speaker and are held on the second Tuesday of the month. Members arrive from 2.15 for a 2.30 start. Meetings usually last for an hour and a half, including time to socialise over a cup of tea.
Guest speakers cover a wide variety of topics of general interest to enable an increased awareness of our locality and our world, embracing history, travel, nature, science and culture, with a balanced programme to meet u3a aims.
We hope you will enjoy our meetings, learn something new, get to know other members, and occasionally volunteer to help out.
Venue
The normal monthly meetings take place at:
Haddenham Village Hall
Banks Park,
Banks Rd,
Haddenham
HP17 8EE
There is parking at the venue.
Costs
General meetings are free to members of Haddenham u3a.
Joining the Meetings
The General Meetings are open to all members of Haddenham u3a.
Angela Hart, on behalf of the u3a Committee, organises the speaker programme. If you have any suggestions of good speakers who would be suitable for the u3a General Meetings, please contact Angela on 01844 292070 or speakers@haddenhamu3a.co.uk
The committee organises the rota of volunteers for the preparation of the venue.
SPEAKER INFORMATION – u3a PROGRAMME 2025
Date: Tuesday 12th August 2025
Speaker: Dr Helen Fry
Talk: THE MAN WHO SAVED M16
The elusive British Spy who fooled Hitler and the Nazis…
Thomas Joseph Kendrick was one of the British Secret Service’s most senior spymasters of the 20th century. From tracking Communist agents across Europe in the 1920s to Nazi spies in the 1930s, he was placed as MI6 head of station in Vienna. There he crossed paths with the British spy and (later) traitor Kim Philby and Communist Edith Tudor-Hart, figures that would go on to rock the MI6 for decades. Kendrick entered the dangerous world of double agents and foreign spies…
Dubbed ‘the elusive Englishman’ by Hitler’s Secret Service, his real identity baffled the Abwehr, until he was finally denounced by a double agent.
Kendrick’s arrest by the Gestapo and ‘Soviet-style’ interrogation caused panic in Whitehall as the whole the European network of British spies was at risk. The spymaster refused to give up the SIS network. Behind all this, he had quietly saved over 25,000 Austrian Jews from certain death in the Holocaust – a legacy that has yet to be recognised. He soon disappeared from the public eye, but went on to orchestrate the longest spying operation against Nazi Germany but from within Britain’s shores.
Dr Helen Fry has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage and spies, and MI9 escape and evasion.
She is the foremost authority on the ‘secret listeners’ who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Her groundbreaking research and extensive media coverage have shed light on one of the greatest intelligence deceptions of the war: the bugging of Hitler’s generals at Trent Park in North London, and thousands of prisoners of war at Latimer House and Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire.
Helen is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI) and serves as a trustee of both the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum and the Medmenham Collection. She works in London.
Date: Tuesday 9th September 2025
Speaker: Phil Millette
Talk: Hydrogen; beneath the public relations what is the reality?
There are many announcements of projects and developments on what hydrogen can and may do as part of the Energy Transition, and what applications are possible.
We take a look at the basics and the claims made. This helps us to see what is actually possible and what are likely developments.
Phil is a retired Chemical Engineer with a 43 year career in industry – in chemicals, oil & gas/ refining, including supply chains and processing plants.
He finished his career in the early stages of Hydrogen growth as part of energy transition, working on three continents, based in Canada, Texas, UK and the Middle East.
Phil is a member of Rickmansworth u3a.
Date|: Tuesday 14th October
Speaker: Roger Butler
Talk: Canal History, Heritage and Architecture
A colourful introduction to the history and heritage of our 2000 mile canal network, with remarkable engineering, architecture and landscapes. The talk looks at locks, bridges, cottages, warehouses, aqueducts, tunnels and, of course, a few boats too – plus quirky features such as canal lighthouses, old boatyards and even tiny towpath bollards. There are plenty of interesting anecdotes as well as a selection of archive pictures and eye-catching images of the waterways through the seasons.
Roger is an experienced lecturer who speaks to groups and societies throughout the UK. He also an established writer/photographer and regularly contributes to a wide range of magazines covering the outdoors, countryside, canals, heritage and travel.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute. He is also a member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild.
Date: Tuesday 11th November 2025
Speaker: Hugh Granger
Talk: Amazing Frauds and Swindles
While nowadays we worry about scams, mainly via our computers or from telephone call centres abroad, in the past some unbelievable frauds were carried out without IT, but still through persuasion.
Haddenham resident Hugh will talk about the man who sold the Eiffel Tower, the phantom bus passengers, the invisible pig farm, and more.
Date: Tuesday 9th December 2025
Speaker: Dr Jill Eyers
Talk: Christmas Celebrations through History Revealed
Discover Christmas of the past from celebrations of the Neolithic Midwinter to the Roman festival and Tudor games, to its reinvention by the Victorians. Which of these Christmases will reflect yours?
Jill Eyers was born in London, with an early childhood in Australia, and studied geology and achieved her doctorate with the Department of Earth Sciences, Open University in 1992. Since that time she has lectured for several universities including Reading, Oxford and the Open University.
Her geological career has taken her to many parts of the world with projects in the Caribbean, Brazil and Turkey being particularly exciting. She has worked in Turkey on archaeological sites and led many field tours to both archaeological and geological locations.
Dr Eyers is the author of numerous books and will bring some along.
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