The Lion s face Official Newsletter of Clan Farquharson in the United Kingdom

Transcription

1 The Lion s face Official Newsletter of Clan Farquharson in the United Kingdom Summer Edition 2015 In this issue Message from the Chief A Royal vist 2014 Message from the Chief Message from the President Recap of the Officers President - Alan Caig Vice President - Joan Farquharson Secretary/Treasuerer - Margaret Finlay Membership secretary - Ansgar Boehmer Editor of Lion s Face - John Patterson Web Site Manager - Alan Caig Committee members - David Coats, Gordon Farquharson (Portpatrick) lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 1

2 Message from the President Welcome to this first edition of the Lion s Face since we elected a new committee on 14 August 2015 at the AGM. We have been through a turbulent two years but we are now through the worst of it, having expelled Andrew Farquharson from the presidency and membership, with the full support of the Clan Chief. I must pay tribute to the sterling work put in by Alistair Farquharson, his wife Joan and Margaret Finlay over the past two years. It was Alistair who kept this society going and maintained a relationship with the Ballater Highland Games Committee so that our attendance at their games continued. There has been an enormous amount of work gone into keeping this society functioning and the dedication of these three people has now resulted in a refreshed clan society with a vigour for our future activities. The new committee are the following appointments:- President - Alan Caig Vice President Joan Farquharson Immediate Past President Alistair Farquharson Secretary Ansgar Boehmer Treasurer and Membership Margaret Finlay Lion s Face Editor John Patterson Committee Members Gordon Farquharson (Portpatrick), David Coates Our attendance at the Ballater Highland Games this year was a great success and we hosted the Best Dressed Highlander Competition on behalf of the games committee. The Open category was won by our member Gordon Farquharson (Portpatrick), a very worthy winner. We took down our web site for a time but it is now back on line and will be refreshed and updated as time goes on. Our bank account with Royal Bank of Scotland is no longer live and on the advice of the bank we have made a formal report to the Police Fraud Action Team who are currently investigating what has happened to the account. When the result of this investigation is known we will update our members via the web site and this newsletter. We will be writing a new Constitution shortly and this will go out to our members for consultation. When this written some years ago we did not envisage some of the problems we have encountered since, so it needs a complete overhaul. Somebody has sent out a rogue version of the Lion s Face, purportedly on behalf of Clan Farquharson-UK (note the hyphen). This newsletter and that organisation have nothing whatever lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 2

3 to do with Clan Farquharson UK and we do not support it in any way. Clan Farquharson UK is the only and official clan society of Clan Farquharson and has the full support of the Clan Chief and his heirs. The new committee is already looking at arrangements for our 2016 Gathering and we will be liaising with the Ballater Highland Games Committee so that our attendance at their games continues as before. Those games will be held on Thursday 11 August 2016 and we will build our gathering programme around that week. I look forward to seeing many of you there. Our Clan Chief, Capt Alwyne Farquharson is in good health and good spirits and is delighted that we are moving forward in a positive way, maintaining our links to Scottish culture, traditions, dress and history. Fide et Fortitudine. Alan Caig, President 2014 Gathering of Clan Farquharson UK By Margaret Finlay The Deeside Inn in Ballater was the venue for this year s Meet & Greet on Wednesday 13 th August & almost everybody who had signed up for the gathering was present. We were delighted to welcome members of Clan Farquharson Australia, namely their Clan High Commissioner of New South Wales & Territories, Syd Finlay,who is also president of Clan Farquharson Australia. together with his wife Brenda, daughter Jane Marlon & her sons, Max & Austin. Jane has been seconded to a law company in London for a year. It was a merry get-together with clansmen catching up with each other s news & generally chatting. Other overseas members were Ansgar & his wife Christine together with Horst Kraus whom most people met last year. The following day was the 150th anniversary of the Ballater Highland Games Day, a very significant occasion. Clan Farquharson was very fortunate in having been allocated a most generous space in the Ballater Historical Society s tent. The Ballater Games Committee, with the Chief s approval, appointed Hon: Vice president Alan Caig, together with Joan & Alistair Farquharson, to host the arrangements & to man a visitors Book, which it was hoped would give the committee some feed back about attendees impressions & comments on all aspects of the Games day. In her usual competent way, Joan produced a lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 3

4 fantastic buffet with a whole salmon, cold meats, salads & fruit.. Not only that, Joan and Alistair provided this banquet free of charge, as well as the wine, so a huge thank you to them for their most generous gesture. When I arrived at the tent, I was greeted with a question, which do you want first, the good news or the bad news.? As one usually does, I opted for the bad news first & Horst, who was staying at Inchgeal Guest House with Ansgar & Christine told us that Ansgar had been taken very ill in the night & his hostess Diane had called an ambulance which took him to Aberdeen Infirmary. That really was a shock because he had seemed fine the previous night. Alistair was able to make contact with the hospital later in the day because neither Ansgar nor Christine had time to take their mobiles. It appeared that poor Ansgar had kidney stones, which must have been horribly painful. I am happy to report that once home, Ansgar saw a specialist & even better news, he parted company with his stones lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 4

5 A Royal Vist and Photo s from 2014 Ballater Margaret Finlay and Alan Caig lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 5

6 Ansgar and Alistair Alan Caig, Chief A.C. Farquharson of Invercauld,, Madame Farquharson, Alastair and Joan Farquharson 6

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13 Lion s Face issue #27 August 2015 A Note from the Editor It is my pleasure to have been elected as the Editor for the Lion s Face, I am both humbled and proud to serve Clan Farquharson UK. To share a personal message, me and Samantha were happily engaged on our trip and look forward to many years of visiting Ballater. The trip has been very special to us and can not thank everyone enough for the warm welcome. We are currently looking to marry at Braemar Castle, but this is in the planning stages. To contact the editor lionsfaceuk@gmail.com for pictures and submissions lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 13

14 Clan Farquharson UK UK President Alan Caig Our International Association s USA President Jim McKeehan Berfert1@msn.com Invercauld Highlanders of North America Commander Stephen Howerton InvercauldHighlandersNA@gmail.com Clan Farquharson Argentina Mr. Carlos Farquharson mundi@clan-farquharson.com.ar lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 14

15 Clan Farquharson Australia Mr. Bruce Finlay Clan Farquharson Canada Mr. David Coutts Clan Farquharson New Zealand Mr. Robert Findlay I certify that this is a true and official copy of the Lion s Face UK John W. Patterson, Editor lionsfaceuk@gmail.com 15