Blythe Sappers Spring Luncheon

Wednesday 29th  February 2012

      

Dear Fellow Blythe Sapper

 

            Our Spring Luncheon in 2012 will be held at the Army & Navy Club, London SW1 on Wed 29th Feb 12 at 1230 for 1pm under the new Chairmanship of Sapper Bill Woodburn

Principal Guest:         Mr David Loyn, BBC Correspondent on “War Reporting”

Charge Per Head:     £54 for Sappers and each Guest.   This includes two glasses of table wine and a glass of port. It does not include drinks before luncheon, which must be paid for by Sappers, further wine maybe purchased from the wine bar.   The management of the Army & Navy Club is again making the Ian Jacob Bar, located adjacent to the Pall Mall Room on the first floor, available exclusively for Blythe Sappers to obtain drinks (including draft beer) from 12 noon until luncheon is announced.   Please therefore will you meet at the Ian Jacob Bar and NOT in the Members’ Bar on the ground floor.   However the Members’ Bar on the Ground Floor will be open after lunch, Sappers are welcome to continue the fostering of the Esprit de Corps of the Royal Engineers over a drink there.

 

            Sappers should indicate on the enclosed pro-forma whether they are able to attend this luncheon and whether they intend bringing along a guest or guests.   Unless there is a waiting list, it is regretted that it will not be possible to make refunds for cancellations after the Army & Navy Club has been notified of the number attending.

 

            The Management Committee has agreed that Sappers entertaining EMINENT guests may request on the pro-forma to be seated on the top table.   Sappers may also request on the same pro-forma to be seated next to other nominated Sappers, and in addition, those Sappers who are hard of hearing should indicate their wish to be positioned close to the Speaker.   The Secretary will endeavour to fulfil such requests but cannot guarantee to be able to do this in all cases.  As is the custom, the Management Committee hope that Sappers will be wearing an appropriate RE tie.

 

Would Sappers please return their completed pro-forma To the Hon Sec by no later than Mon 13th Feb 12.

 

Dates for 2012:     

Wed 29th  Feb

Wed 30th  May

Sat 4th  Aug

Guest Night

Wed 26th Sep

Wed 5th   Dec

 

Yours aye

               

 

    John                                                                                                                                                  December 2011

From:  (NAME IN BLOCK CAPITALS)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my e-mail address is:

 

 

BS Spring Luncheon --  Wednesday 29th February 2012

 

PRINCIPAL GUEST:

Mr David Loyn

 

Please reserve a place for me at the luncheon on:

 

 

Wed 29th Feb 12

 

@ £54.00

£

 

 

 

Please reserve a place(s) for my guest(s)

 

 

@ £54.00 each

£

 

 

 

I enclose a cheque payable to

The Blythe Sappers for:

 

or by BACS to Sort Code:    82-11-07

                  Account No:      20140274

 

 

 

 

Date of transfer

 

 

TOTAL

£

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUESTS’ NAME(S)  RANK(S), TITLE(S) ETC. IN BLOCK CAPITALS

 

 

 

 

 

(1)

 

(2)

 

(3)

 

(4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Request for Top Table Seating for EMINENT GUEST(S)

YES/NO

 

 

 

 

(Delete as applicable)

 

 

 

 

Request to be seated near the Speaker

 

YES/NO

 

 

 

 

(Delete as applicable)

 

 

 

 

Request to be seated next or near to

Sapper(s):

 

RETURN TO:                     Sapper John R McLennan

The Blythe Sappers, Honorary Secretary

C/o Royal Engineers Association

Brompton Barracks, Chatham, Kent ME4 4UG

Tel: 01634 847005

website: www.blythesappers.co.uk

e-mail: secretary@blythesappers.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr David Loyn

David Loyn (born 1 March 1954) has been a foreign correspondent since the late 1970s, mostly with the BBC. He is an authority on Afghan history. He worked as a Radio correspondent for IRN for 8 years, and in 1987 he joined the BBC as a TV correspondent. He is currently the BBC’s International Development correspondent.

Loyn has frequently sought to report on the motivation of insurgent groups, including interviews with Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon , Maoist Naxalite rebels in India, Kashmiri separatists, and the Kosovo Liberation Army. He has conducted several significant exclusive interviews with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Loyn’s reporting career includes the following highlights:

·                    He reported extensively from Eastern Europe in the early 1980s, witnessing the birth of the Solidarity Union in Poland and interviewing Lech Wałęsa.

·                    In 1984 his reports on the massacres in India which followed the death of Indira Gandhi won him the Sony Award as Radio Reporter of the Year.

·                    In 1989 Loyn reported on the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolution in Romania.

·                    In 1993 he became the first new BBC correspondent in India for more than 20 years, following Mark Tully.

·                    In 1996 Loyn and his team (Rahimullah Yusufzai

, Fred Scott and Vladimir Lozinski) were the only journalists with the Taliban when they took Kabul.

·                    In 1998 (with Vaughan Smith), he secured exclusive access to the Kosovo Liberation Army to report from behind their lines in a series of reports that won the Foreign News Award from the Royal Television Society, the first of two awards won by Loyn that year; he was also made the RTS Journalist of the Year.

·                    As International Development Correspondent, Loyn has reported frequently from conflict and disaster zones, particularly in Africa.

·                    In 2006 Loyn travelled to Helmand province to interview the Taliban for a series of exclusive reports.

Loyn’s first book, ‘’Frontline’’, told the story of the Frontline TV agency. It was shortlisted for the 2005 Orwell Prize. It is currently in production as a feature film. His second book, ‘’Butcher and Bolt – 200 years of foreign engagement in Afghanistan’’, was published in 2008. Butcher and Bolt was widely seen as providing insight into why the Afghan war proved a far harder fight than it had initially looked in 2001. The book drew parallels between foreign engagements in the past and today to suggest why Afghanistan was harder to hold than it was to take.

Loyn has written extensively on how international development issues are reported.  He has been a long-term advocate of better understanding of the effects of reporting violence, both on the journalists and for those on the receiving end. He is on the European board of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma. He is also a member of the Dart Society, which brings together journalists on both sides of the Atlantic. But Loyn has been an opponent of a school of journalism known as ‘Peace News’, and debated with its supporters both in public and in a widely cited academic discourse.

Loyn is on the board of the Media Standards Trust and a trustee of the Roddy Scott Foundation. He is on the Advisory Council of the Mcdonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life in Oxford, and is a founder member of London’s Frontline Club.