The Birmingham Wargames Club, recent winners of the National Wargames Championship are one of the few Clubs with a female secretary. To make certain of keeping her in the post, Dave Millward (Individual Champion at Dundee) has married the girl and now the Club Secretary of the Birmingham Wargames Club is Mrs. D. Millward. The Club now hold their Meetings on every second Tuesday of the month at the Ladywood Community Centre - new members and visitors are welcome.
John R. Clements has been in contact with several people in the Manchester area with the idea of forming a Wargaming Society - they hope to have an inaugural meeting shortly (if it has not already taken place). Would anybody in the South Lancs/North Cheshire area contact Mr. Clements if they are interested in taking part in this groups activities.
As always, the GRENADIER - Bulletin of the Cheltenham Wargames Club arrives here in the first week of the month. It is consistently interesting and never fails to impress with its enthusiasm and listing of the Club's innumerable activities. Chris Gregg, with Chris Beaumont, have always been the driving force behind this Club and in a letter accompany Grenadier 110-58 Mr. Gregg tells me that their membership remained pretty constant and that their wargaming is thriving. However, people come and go and this month they have lost some of their best members to universities and jobs and it remains to be seen how they get on. Personally, I have no doubt whatsoever that they wi11 get on very well.
R.J. Neilson is the Secretary of the Newcastle Wargames Group, recently formed, which meets at the Bridge Hotel, Newcastle, at least one Saturday each month, catering for wargamers in the area who have not got a lot of spare time or who wish to make contact with other wargamers rather than be organised to fight a set battle at a set time. A subsidary group has also been formed as a Wargames Section dealing with campaigns, rules and other more organised activities. In this way the Group hope to have a fairly free organisation and to fulfil the regular attendances necessary for wargames campaigns. They say that their ideas for campaigns are based entirely on greed with the object of gaining as much money as possible! They publish a Broadsheet which gives a battle report in addition to an informative editorial and an article on rules etc.
The Oxford, Bucks and Berks Branch of the Britism Model Soldier Society publish a well produced monthly magazine "THE GAZETTE". The September edition contains articles on The Artillery of Wellington and Napoleon; The Medes and Persians; Spartacus and his War with the Romans (this includes details of Airfix conversions, etc); -n Introduction to Early Firearms plus numerous informative paragraphs on Clulactivities etc. I note that there is a wargaming section who report an Ancient battle, a Naval engagement and a Modern battle. I also note with all the envy of the Secretary of a similar Club, that this group have an ACTIVE section of 12 wives and lady friend who really do take part in meetings and generally pull their weight besides looking decorative. This is obviously a very active group, although, from our point of view, it is more a model soldier collecting society than a wargames club.
Nevertheless, as we are endeavouring to do in the Wessex Military Society, such a broader view of our hobby is to be desired when we form our clubs. A pure and simple Wargames Club tends to become indrawn upon itself, split into groups relating to the historical period that interests its members, and even to be beset with the myriad of arguments and controversies that seem inseparable from wargaming. A military society or more generalised type of club has its ranks open to the man, often more mature, who does not necessarily wish to become embroiled in battling with model soldiers on a table-top battlefield, but finds fascination in the colour, tradition and background of military and warlike pursuits. At the same time, the wargamer finds that he learns from these facets of the hobby over and above actual wargaming if only because no one can satisfactory fight battles with model soldiers without having an interest and knowledge of the period in which they are fighting.
This is one of the saving graces of our hobby (if it needs them) because the perhaps parochial aspects of collecting, painting, converting, organising into armies is given a broader range of interest and attraction through this extra knowledge. I think it is reasonable to say that I have gained just as much pleasure from reading hosts of military books in order to know more about the armies I collect, their weapons, tactics, and methods of fighting than in the actual wargaming itself.
Man is a gregarious animal and will find considerable pleasure and a great troadening of vision in carrying on his wargaming with the company and encouragement of others of similar interests.
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© Copyright 1970 by Donald Featherstone.
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