The Soroptimist International club of Winchester celebrated its 60th Diamond anniversary in the city last weekend. From 30 September to 2nd October there was an event every day.
On the Friday evening the Mayor of Winchester, Cllr Derek Green, hosted a lively reception in Abbey House which finished with a tour of the rooms. We were able to show our projects, both current and archive stories and gave us a great opportunity to inform the Mayor of our activities. Members provided delicious canapés with the wine. Afterwards we walked next door to the Mercure Wessex Hotel where we had an informal dinner. The Mayor was delighted to join us. 
The following morning, one of the city’s guides took us on a specific tour which for we had asked; a tour of ‘Women of Winchester’ which lasted just over an hour. There were horror stories as well as saucy stories, from the execution of Alice Lisle to the secret door through which Charles II brought his mistress Nell Gwynne. Other highlights featured the founder of the Mother’s Union Mary Sumner, who lived by the Cathedral and began her work here, and of course Jane Austen is buried at the Cathedral. The tour was excellently taken by Karen Dagwell from the Tourist Office, where we stopped in front of the house where Jane Austen had stayed.
We were working up to our big ticket fundraiser at the Saturday night quiz, held at Littleton Memorial Hall. 45 members and guests turned out to air their knowledge on a cleverly designed quiz relating in some part to diamonds. Ellie and Helen from the Winchester club ran this event well and kept us to time. This, in spite of the interlude to eat fish and chips from the Harestock fish and chip shop, which were hot and tasty and followed by desserts made by members. A cash bar and raffle were also held which proved very popular. The funds raised will go towards the Soroptimist charity the Diamond Education Grant, which gives funds to enable women to take further education or courses to improve their work skills.
The final event was afternoon tea with a Prosecco reception at the Wessex Centre, part of the Cathedral Estate. This lovely airy venue gave us the opportunity to put on the club’s archive presentation and our own presentation of 60 Women of Winchester, wonderfully researched by Gina Bird, one of our members. The event was attended by 40 members and guests from other clubs in the region and we had two speakers. 
The event began with the anniversary cake cutting with our oldest and youngest members of the club. This was done beautifully by Myra Clare and Ellie Hill with a beribboned silver knife. The cake was a magnificent affair created by club member Tref Mitchell.
Our first speaker (on zoom) was a former member Beatriz Chadour Sampson, a jewellery author who gave us a talk entitled ‘Diamonds are more than a Girl’s Best Friend’. She took us through the history of diamonds through the ages, their origins, the way they were cut and used and with some magnificent examples right up to our late Queen. It was a fascinating insight and the audience was quite spellbound.
This was followed by a sumptuous tea which was beautifully served and certainly an ample sufficiency was enjoyed by everyone. We had a late arrival when the Mayor turned up with his entourage from the Cathedral. His engagement had finished and as he was in the area (having heard about the forthcoming tea when he was with us on Friday) was able to join us and propose the loyal toast. Our first official toast to King Charles III. 
Our second speaker was Joy Carter, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winchester with a talk entitled ‘Sixty years, Looking Back, Looking Forward’. She tied in our club activities of 60 years with 60 years of Winchester, and brought us up to date with a jolt when considering climate change and our global state of affairs. She specifically mentioned WINACC – Winchester Action on Climate Change and gave us food for thought with a list of extreme disasters, flooding and drought etc.
Notwithstanding the world’s current plight, Joy proposed the toast to Soroptimist International, the Winchester club and guests, urging us to continue our good work for women and girls, both locally and internationally.
The afternoon ended with a vote of thanks from SIGBI Federation President Elect Ruth Healey. Each guest took away an especially designed 60th anniversary book mark, produced by two members Barbara Jeremiah and Jeni Patrick.
The weekend was a great success and the club wishes to thank all who attended and celebrated with us at all our events. We also thank the events team from Baxter Storey at the Cathedral who looked after us so well.
The presentations shown at the event are located here:
Winchester club archive Part 1 Part 2 60 Women of Winchester Joy Carter 60 years Part 1 Part 2