NEWENT and District Probes Club held a 100th birthday celebration for one of its members.
Geoff Thomas is the first centenarian in the club’s history.
To mark the occasion, Geoff gave a talk on “100 years of change”
He was welcomed by club chairman Fraser Gunn.
Geoff born in Bloomsbury, London in 1924.
This was a literary area at that time near Russell Square underground station.
A mixed area of housing, some affluent but many relatively poor, it was an exciting place for a young boy to grow up. His first memory was at four-years-old, being pushed in a perambulator by his mother in Market Street , Summer Town, where they passed a sweet factory.
He lived in a tenement house with his mother, father and sister – who is now 102 - and an extended family on different floors until he was 12.
There was gas lighting in the house and in the streets, with lamplighters going around daily switching them on and off.
They then moved nearer to Holborn where he met Queen Mary when she visited the area during King George V’s Jubilee in 1935.
He developed an interest in current affairs at a time when news was spread by newspaper vendors as little radio or TV was available.
Overall, these were good times until war was declared and life would never be the same again.
In August 1939 Geoff went on a Scout camp to Cornwall and when he returned plans to evacuate children from London had been made.
At 14-years-old he went to Kentish Town station with a small case and gas mask to be evacuated but he didn’t know where he was going.
It turned out to be Luton, which was as likely to be bombed as London with munitions and car factories there.
He didn’t like Luton and after six weeks he went back home to London.
London was completely different as it was on a war footing there were no lights anywhere: it was the end of an era.
People were tense but calm and morale was good.
This was during the early days of the conflict, known as the “Phoney War” period,
In December the Expeditionary Force left for France and schools were closed but Geoff was able to obtain a five-year apprenticeship with the help of his Scout Master.
This was an Environmental Apprenticeship, and he was involved in the design of munitions factories and other similar buildings.
He trained as air crew and later joined the army.
Geoff became involved in the redevelopment of London after the war, designing environmental services such as gas, electric and air-conditioning for many building projects. He retired in 1990.
He is a member of the Guild of Freeman of London and is a member of the Guild of Fan Makers.
He commented that when he was 99 people weren’t interested in talking about his life, but by 100 “bang” everyone wants to hear about his life.
Afterwards Geoff and his colleagues enjoyed a selection of special birthday cakes and he was wished many more birthdays to come.
Newent Probus Club meets twice monthly at Gorsley village hall to hear talks from a variety of speakers.
It hosts regular monthly pub lunches plus quizzes, skittles matches and other events.
Probus is open to retired and semi retired people and has branches across the world.
The Newent club was started with a meeting in the George Hotel in March 1977
New members are always welcomed and details about the Newent clubcan be obtained from the secretary Kelvin Ashby at www.newentprobus.com