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Captain Andy Buchanan presents the Essay Competition Prizes at the 2008 Reunion Gala Dinner
 The 2008 HMS Courageous Society Reunion was held at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Seaton Burn, Newcastle, over the weekend of the 4th, 5th and 6th of April 2008. The reunion was superbly organised by George “Dinger” Bell. As George spends about half of his working life abroad in the Far east a great deal of credit must also go to his long suffering wife, Val. The Society were pleased to be able to present Val with a bouquet of flowers in gratitude for her help and George and Val both jointly received an engraved glass and pewter plate in gratitude for their efforts in arranging such a superb event.
112 people, including an ever growing number of wives and partners, sat down to enjoy a gala dinner on the Saturday evening which was the culmination of the weekend of meeting old friends and renewing friendships, some who were meeting for the first time since the last reunion in 2006 and others for the first time since 1970.
 Some of our members took advantage of a very well negotiated accommodation package and chose to arrive on the Friday afternoon to increase both the time available for meeting old friends and, of course the time available to imbibe a few tipples.
The hotel bar was weighed down by cash flowing across its counter as the staying power of submariners was demonstrated admirably by our members and, it is reported that the last survivors finally relented and, purely as a gesture of mercy, allowed the bar staff to retire gracefully at 5am on Saturday morning.
The full cooked breakfast was a must for the Friday Night warriors and so began Saturday.
 The Annual General Meeting was held at 1030 on Saturday morning with an excellent turn out. The first thing to turn out was Pittk’s colon which certainly had a devastating effect upon the members in proximity. Many a member regretted handing in their Respirator on leaving the service at that moment. Once a short adjournment had been allowed for the air to clear, the meeting got under way. Immediately before the meeting, a number of members were trying to get some fresh air outside the hotel. A coach party of senior citizens was leaving the hotel for a local tour and, just before it pulled away, the door of the coach opened, an elderly lady made great efforts to struggle to the front of the bus and down the stairs where she looked Bob Wishart in the eye and spoke the immortal words, “ I think you are wonderful and just wanted to say thank you for your contribution to the war effort!” The AGM was, of course, notified of the the presence of such a celebrated war hero in our midst but nobody was able to recall being at Paschendale or Jutland with Bob! The meeting was ably and quickly managed by Peter Godwin and a number of key decisions were made relating to moving The Society forward. Reunion venues for the next four years were discussed and agreed so please see our reunion 2010 page for details of the next get together.
 A number of activities were available to the members in the afternoon. Of course the ever popular, let’s see who can spend the most at the bar competition was well supported while the more gentle pastimes of shopping at The Metro Centre, artistic viewing at The Baltic, football at St. James’s Park and horse racing at Newcastle Race Track were also on the agenda.
Early evening saw the members once again congregating in the bar in best bib and tucker, ready for the evening gala dinner to come. The gathered masses moved into the Cheviot Suite of the hotel where the hotel staff had laid out a wonderful dinner for us. The meal, consisting of assette of smoked salmon on a bed of dressed salad, chicken breast wrapped in parma ham with creamed potatoes and fresh vegetables, cream cheesecake with fresh berries, coffee and mints was ably served by the staff. Wine available at the table, provided by the Society, helped the meal move along. Various collections were well supported raising money for both The Society and for the Help for Heroes Charity. The sale of Society ties raised a further £100 pounds which was donated to Help for Heroes. Tie pins, Courageous Historical Booklets, Ties and raffle tickets were on open sale and a whip round for the serving staff all helped to relieve members of their well earned money!
 Following the meal, our Chairman, Peter Godwin, presented gifts to the hotel in appreciation of their hosting of the event, to Val and George Bell for their superb efforts in organising such a successful reunion and, a special award, presented to Pittk (Michael Pitkeathly) for his past, present and continuing efforts to improve the Courageous Exhibit, produce a detailed history of the boat which is to be published and his work as secretary of The Society from which position he has now stood down due to family commitments. All recipients received a huge round of applause for their efforts.
The Chairman then gave the after dinner speech in his inimitable humorous and highly entertaining style and this was followed by Andy Buchanan presenting the prizes for the best entries in the Courageous Society Essay Competition.
The toast for the evening was, in honour of our servicemen and women serving in conflicts around the globe “The Profession of Arms”.
 
Some of our members took the opportunity to enjoy a round of golf at local courses and some hardy souls even managed to stay an additional night to recover and travelled home on Monday. All in all, a wonderful weekend which leaves us all looking forward to 2010 in Plymouth.
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