VENUE: Don Powis Hall, Settlers Park Retirement Village
TIME: 9:30 for 10am
LAHS announces the GRAND LAUNCH of the SOCIETY’S WEBSITE.
From Paper to the Internet. A vital new step in the life of your Society.
The Lower Albany Historical Society has celebrated 50 (golden) and 60 (diamond) wonderful years and is now in its 68th year, heading for 70 (platinum).
Time for members to learn a new skill and how to access information on the history of not only Lower Albany and our society, but also of other historical societies and museums of interest in the eastern Cape and beyond.
This will be an inter-active meeting when your vote will count! [Members will be asked to vote on five different designs for the Home Page, voting slips will be supplied.
There will be time for questions and comments]
Come and enjoy an early cup of tea/coffee with fellow members. Visitors welcome.
Meeting Fee: Members, R5.00pp, Visitors, R10.00pp. Margaret Snodgrass(newsletter scribe
Thank you to all members who have renewed their 2026 membership fees.
R90.00 per single member, R130.00 per couple.
Our LAHS treasurer, Eddie Brown will be available at the back of hall for cash payments on Thursday.
LAHS BANK DETAILS FOR EFT BANKING
BANK: First National Bank, Port Alfred
ACCOUNT NAME: Lower Albany Historical Society Club
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 63051475218
BRANCH CODE: 210917
REFERENCE: Your Name (Surname & Initial) [LAHS Your reference]
Please inform the secretary, Heather Howard email: hatfield@telkomsa.net if you no longer wish to remain a member of LAHS or if you change your email address.
Thank you,
Margaret Snodgrass (LAHS scribe)
Please check with LAHS Treasurer, whether you have paid your subs this year.
R90.00pp single membership,
R130 per couple.
THURSDAY, 20 AUGUST 2026 Very Important date to diarise.
Thank you, Margaret Snodgrass (LAHS scribe)
A special welcome to all the new members who have joined our Historical Society this year.
Please come and enjoy an early cup of tea or coffee before 10.00am.
Please Diarise the following: THURSDAY, 16 JULY 2026
Indoor meeting
Venue: Don Powis Hall, Settlers Park Retirement Village, Cnr Bathurst Street and Horton Road, Port Alfred
Time: 9:30 for 10:00am
Speaker: Retired Judge, Jeremy Pickering
Topic: ‘Raising the Bar- The Making of a Judge’
Judge Pickering was born and raised on a farm in Stutterheim: “I spent the daylight hours of my first weeks of life in the warm environs of the yeast–proving drawer of Holland bakery in Stutterheim. I was born prematurely and weighed under four pounds (1.8 kg). Stutterheim Hospital had no incubators.”
He studied law at the University of Stellenbosch and first worked in the office of the Attorney-General in then Grahamstown, now Makhanda. His career took a diversion when he worked on a pig farm in Gloucestershire and then as a clown in a circus before returning to the serious business of law as an advocate in Mthatha.
In 1985 after several acting judicial appointments, he joined the Legal Resources Centre, a national non-governmental legal practice devoted to human rights which was started by advocate Arthur Chaskalson, later the first President of our Constitutional Court, and Felicia Kentridge and Geoff Budlender. This was despite hostility from senior members of the bench and being warned by a Judge President that this would thwart any hope of a permanent judicial appointment.
Judge Pickering was appointed to the then Eastern Cape Supreme Court in 1992 and retired in 2019 after serving in both Mthatha and Makhanda.
An irreverent colleague congratulated him: “So now they really are appointing clowns to the bench.”
Meeting Fee: LAHS Members: R5.00pp Visitors: R10.00pp -most welcome.
Good afternoon LAHS members,
Please diarise the following:
THURSDAY, 18 JUNE 2026
Indoor meeting
Venue: Don Powis Hall, Settlers Park Retirement Village, Port Alfred
Time: 9:30 for 10:00 am
Speaker: David Hilton-Barber, Journalist and Publisher.
Topic: ‘Frederick York St. Leger, classical scholar, Minister of the Church, Headmaster of St. Andrews, founding editor of the Cape Times, member of Parliament, and my maternal great-great-grandfather.’
Meeting Fee: Members, R5.00pp Visitors, R10.00pp. Visitors are welcome.
Please come and enjoy an early cup of tea or coffee with LAHS members before the meeting.