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Woodbury royal British legion fund raising bbq

LIVERPOOL BLITZ 70 Sat 30th May- Mon 2nd May 2011

Hi Arthur, been meaning to write to you all week but it’s been pretty hectic! I Just wanted to say thank you so much to all of your work last weekend! You were simply fantastic! We managed to raise over £8,000 in all, which is brilliant. Will get a C.D. of photographs out to you next week! Thanks again.

Victoria Phipps.

D-Day Revisited. (Liverpool Blitz 70 event).

Wartime Tea Dance and Singalong

Woodbury Village Hall, Saturday 7 May 2011 1500-1800

Dear Arthur.

The Tea Dance was a resounding success and raised a total of £520.00 for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.

Thank you so much for coming along to entertain us at what was a truly memorable afternoon.

There was a real strong sense of community in the hall where both young and old joined in the singing as if they had all been through the War years together. The younger people, me included were amazed by how many of the songs they actually knew.

I have passed your details on to Major Richard Rochester who is our Families Day organiser, so hopefully he will be in touch shortly.

Please pass on our sincere thanks and best wishes to Lesley, Jane and Paul and hope that we will be able to meet again very soon.

Kind regards

Karen.

Karen Weir.

Central Bank Assistant

Castle Drogo WWII Weekend 2010

Hi Arthur

Sorry I haven't been in touch sooner. Thank you once again, to you and the lovely ladies. I think the air raid concert in the chapel was a huge success.

We are meeting with the MVT guys in November to wrap up this year’s events and to talk through plans for next year. We will of course be in touch once we know where we are going with this.

Take care and I hope to see you soon.

Best wishes

Paula Clarke.

Event Manager 2010 Castle Drogo
 

Middlewich Cheshire Heritage VE and VJ Weekend

Hi Arthur,

Thanks for your email and all your hard work on our weekend, you’ll be pleased to know that many people really enjoyed your shows they thought the three of you were brilliant and so did I! 

Best Regards

Kerry Fletcher

Heritage Development Officer

Middlewich Town Council
 

Research about my Grandfather from a photograph.

Arthur, this is one of those moments when my faith in humanity is refreshed. I wouldn't of expected as much help & information & I truly hope that you get the pleasure you deserve from the work you do.

I am fortunate to work at something I love, feel passionately about & find rewarding, I can only hope people are half as impressed & grateful with my work as I am with yours, on behalf of my family - thank you again.

Regards Rob.

Victory at Milestones event 2010

Hi Arthur

Many thanks for a great weekend.

I thought you guys were just superb and will be booking you again for any future event we may do.

Milestones and the Hampshire Museums and Galleries Trust both have Facebook pages so, if ok with you, I will post some of your photos on there. I also took a few snaps over the weekend so will forward some to you.

Many, many thanks again.

Very best wishes

Ann Wharton

Events Manager

Milestones Museum Basingstoke.

Salem Chapel

Thank you very much. A most enjoyable and moving experience yesterday at Salem Chapel.

Keith.

The Mid Hants Railway ‘Watercress Line 2010’

Hi Arthur!

                 Thanks for coming along I thought your singing and interaction with the public was excellent, it brings alive the atmosphere and spirit I want to foster at the event.  We’d love to have you back again next year and will be in touch once the dates are known.

Thanks for the pictures. I’ve added some to our Gallery.  You’ll actually find one of you guys up there already which I took.

I’ve had nothing but positive comments following the event which is fantastic. 

Cheers

Tim Beere.

Marketing Manager.

War On The Line 2009

Dear Arthur and Lesley,

Thank you very much for the pictures, a lovely reminder of a great weekend. It was an absolute pleasure to see you first thing in the morning and really gets people in the mood (including us!)
I personally had such a good day on the Saturday, that I came down for a visit to the railway Sunday too! So nice to see the railway ‘off duty’!
Looking forward to seeing you next year,

Kind Regards.
Mark and all the team at Alton Station.
 

Women's Land Army Reunion, Torquay

Hi Arthur, Lesley and Jane

Well what can I say! You were all brilliant and made our day – many, many thanks - I think we will have to do it again next year! Perhaps we should keep to that same May weekend as it seems quite a good time - perhaps you could pencil it in? By the way, thanks for the bomb photos. Write up and photos in tomorrows Evening paper so will send on a copy.

We returned to the Railway in the evening for the BBQ to find everything eaten and landed up with Chinese takeaway!

Hopefully see you soon at some local event.
Louise and Steve
 

Bruce Yarsley's 80th birthday party

Dear Arthur and Lesley,

Well, what a fantastic set of photos you put on your website. We didn't realise there were so many. We look forward to the CD of them that you were going to forward. Do you have our address?

The whole “do” was great, and everyone appreciated your efforts, and your involvement of the children who were there. A look through the pictures shows how many people actually went to the trouble of dressing up for the occasion, and it was a lot!! Bruce thoroughly enjoyed and valued the event, and continued the festivities back at his house.

It may well be that we now go and experience a bit more 1940s on the Watercress Line in Hants later this year. Nice to dress up!
All the best for a fantastic year,

Ray and Janet.


Bruce Yarsley's 80th birthday party

Hi Arthur & Lesley

Just wanted to thank you both again for your fabulous night of entertainment. We all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I know Bruce was delighted with it all too, even though he seemed very overwhelmed!!!
Love all the pictures and we are hoping to make a slide-show from them, and the video footage we have.

Best wishes to you both and hope to bump into you again some time!!

Regards

Linda (nurse) & Alan (RAF Officer)


ROYAL WINGS PARTY

Lesley, Arthur, and Jane.

Great meeting you today. Good show too - knew all your songs - but had to miss after tea as Peter who gave me lift had to go to Plymouth and thick fog and heavy rain meant slow journey.

Hope see you one day.

Kindest regards,

Doug Tidy

ROYAL WINGS PARTY

A few pics sent to me by Steve Wheeler, who was at our 'gathering of the eagles' yesterday. The uniformed trio are entertainers and because of the rain during the 'barbie' had to do it in the swimming pool, they had John sitting there and were singing , 'oh Johnny! oh, oh Johny, how you can love', never seen him with such a smile for a long time. Frank.

Till later then . . . .Bill Wild.
P,S. Att . . . us in full swing . . . I love girls in uniform !!!

ROYAL WINGS PARTY

Comment: Hi folks,
Just a word to say how much I personally, as well as Frank's other guests enjoyed your 'concert' at Fairways last weekend, and to congratulate you on a fine web site which I will certainly bookmark.

I hope and am sure that you will continue to give great pleasure and enjoy
great success in the future.

Best wishes,
Andrew M. Ockenden in Nottingham

(known 6 days a week as Andy to the Royal Wings group!
It was great to meet you!)

ROYAL WINGS PARTY

Many, many thanks for Fri night it was absolutely wonderful, could not have been better, Bill was so pleased when you allowed him to accompany you on the harmonica, I think he wanted the others to see and hear him anyway, and this was the best way, the bit with John went down well as did the Pam Ayres poem, especially with Jane's Oxfordshire accent, I had to print off a few copies of this for some of them, I don't have Jane's e-mail address so hope you will forward these bits on. I will forward some of the more interesting comments and pics that I get the one below is from Ed Cooke, he was the one who rang us from the USA whilst the party was on, a WW2 survivor of many bomber raids over Germany. Hope that you will all keep in touch, and feel free to drop in anytime, thanks again.

Frank Authers.

ROYAL WINGS PARTY

Hi Frank,
Enjoyed the pictures, looks like you were all having a good time! "oh Johnny ,oh johny, etc" ,that really brought back memories of Cardington April 1940 and walking into the camp cinema and that is what the organ was playing. They were the days when I was young and foolish.

Ed: Edward M.Cooke Wing Commander (retired).


ROYAL WINGS PARTY

Hi Frank,

Many thanks to you and “Blitz and Peaces” for providing a grand day out and fun entertainment.

There was lots of laughter all round so that can only be a good thing.
Best wishes, Steve Wheeler.


HOMETOR HOUSE

Dear Arthur and Lesley,
Many thanks for a wonderful show you all gave us on Sunday.

I have found your letter and photos on my computer, So, I am very happy and have shown Anne and Gerrthem.

Bye for now.

Best Wishes from Barbara.


BAY FM RADIO

Arthur and Lesley Cook's WW2 Memorabilia show "The Way We Were" which gave a library of wartime news, information and music that was played during Britain’s dark times in the 1940's.
Arthur Cook Said: “We really enjoyed the challenge of writing the script for the show and trying to ensure that the historical facts of the era were correct, it took hours of work, but upon listening to people comments since the broadcast, it seems that it was well worth while. We would like to get more listeners tuned in next year, but for the older listeners this is quite difficult as they find new radio receivers difficult to operate. We are going to try to get the local rotary to help people tune in their sets next year”.
“Age Concern made a lot of favourable comments, regarding the playlist and the content and we also had favourable comments from families with young children who listen in to the broadcast, so hopefully next years shows will benefit from this years introduction to our style of presentation”.


WOMEN'S LAND ARMY REUNION

Dear Arthur and Lesley,
Just a note to thank you both for providing the entertainment at the Lord Mayors Land Army Girl’s Tea in the Guildhall.

Everyone who attended had a lovely afternoon and your entertainment brought back some poignant memories for them. Thankk you so much.

I enclose a photograph which I thought you might like to keep.

J. Henderson.

Lord Mayor’s Support Officer


CLYST HEATH SCHOOL

On Monday 13th of October the Class 3 at Clyst Heath Primary School had some very special visitors in the form of ‘Blitz and Peaces’, otherwise known as Lesley and Arthur Cook. They brought along hundreds of artefacts, mostly original, that dated back to the period of World War II. The children were able to handle everything that was safe, although there were some items deemed unsafe, such as the tail-end of a German bomb! The children learnt about the ‘real’ impact that the war had on Exeter and its people. They heard about the role of women left behind whilst the men were away at war and how many became Land Girls. Evacuation was also key, and the children heard about many stories of real evacuees, which fitted very well with the story of one of the children’s grandmothers, as you can see from the photograph, who had been evacuated and who has written to the children to tell of her experience. The children were able to model the uniform of the Home Guard along with a variety of helmets belonging to various divisions of the Forces. They even had time for a good old-fashioned wartime sing-song. What a great example of learning through ‘almost’ real experience!


ALAN DYER'S 80TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

Dear Lesley , Arthur and jane ,
Happy New Year! I haven’t had a minute yet to thank you for making dad’s day so incredibly special. He thoroughly enjoyed it. As did all of his friends and relatives. Have recommended you to Millwater School in Honiton for a School visit.

Once again, thanks a million – you were absolutely fantastic!

Trish and Paul.

WOMEN'S LAND ARMY REUNION TORQUAY

Hi Arthur, Lesley and Jane,
Well what can I say! You were all brilliant and made our day – many, many thanks - I think we will have to do it again next year! Perhaps we should keep to that same May weekend as it seems quite a good time - perhaps you could pencil it in? By the way, thanks for the bomb photos. Write up and photos in tomorrows Evening paper so will send on a copy.

We returned to the Railway in the evening for the BBQ to find everything eaten and landed up with chinese takeaway!

Hopefully see you soon at some local event.
Louise and Steve


TOPSHAM WHITE ENSIGN CLUB

Dear Arthur,
Thank you very much for a wonderful day, Please thank Lesley and Jane on my behalf and that of the White Ensign Club. I will be in touch soon about the next event.

Yours Sincerely,

Bruce Mattock.

Club Manager.

CHITTLEHAMPTON CHURCH

Hi Arthur, Lesley and Jane,

Forgive me for attaching my 'thank you' to this e-mail but it is the easiest way to pass on the photos! I have sent these to the North Devon Journal so they may feature in this week's edition if I am not too late.

Thank you so much for coming to perform. It was enjoyed by all and many have said so, including the family at the front with the children. It bought back memories for many of us, either of the war itself or of childhood memories of 'Mother singing these songs around the house'!

I hope you got to the next venue in time to clear up etc & that you had a safe journey home.

Hopefully 'we shall meet again'.

Best wishes to you all

Carole

The Alzheimer’s Café

Hi Lesley,
Just a note to say thank you for the photographs on the disk. The pictures are great and we can use them to publicise the Alzheimer’s Café in the future. Everyone really enjoyed the afternoon. It was fabulous! Thank you again.

Anne.

Community Care Worker
Exmouth and Budleigh Complex Care Team


The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)

Dear Arthur,
As promised the book you lent to us some time again now. We found it very interesting and useful.

I think I have mentioned a while ago about our WW II volunteers coming along to one of your events but at the time we did not have a full-time co-ordinator in place to help organise events from our end. However, Rachel Ackerman now manages our volunteers and would be interested to hear if you have any local WW II events that we could come along to as participants, or just to observe.

Thanks again Arthur and I hope we can do some events together in the future.

Yours Sincerely.

Mark Griffin.
Visitor Services Advisor