AV News 187 - February 2012
A Further Appreciation
Pat Reynolds Hon FRPS APAGB
I fully Remember John Dawkins, Bless him and his AV 'Contraption'. He started
me off in AV!
I spent 28 years in the Royal Air Force and started Moreton-in-Marsh
Photography Club in 1953. John once gave his show to us. I formed a further 9
clubs in the RAF, ending up in Wales at RAF St. Athan. I started the AV Group
in Wales and worked for it up to the time I had my stroke. I lost the power of
speech and have only just got it back again, but it has left me without the ability
to write. I cannot lift my AV equipment now, nor give my presentations. I
travelled throughout Wales as I was the President - twice - of the WPF.
I was instrumental in hosting the WPF and RPS AV programme in Porthcawl
with two of the most famous people in AV, namely Sir George and Lady Doreen
Pollock, being the judges. I still receive AV News and love AV and all it stands
for, even if I can't still do it!
I am 89 years old now and finally congratulate John Dawkins in attaining the
age of 95. I send my love to his wife Jean. In greatful thanks to him and his
memory and his wonderful AV equipment and sequences.
Ena Walker - Obituary
Stuart Clark
In the eighties two ladies from Doncaster CC became the AV show stoppers of
South Yorkshire with their outrageous and not a little risque,’ productions. Billed
as 'Gran Tran', soft dissolves and third images were not for them, they were
shooting from the hip, with 'Snooker', 'Boy Scouts Camp' and as a line in the
calypso related in 'The Big V' which ventilated the then topical subject of
vasectomy, 'they weren’t firing blanks'!
Ena Walker supplied the pictures and Brenda Mitchell, former journalist, the
words. As their reputation spread they became known affectionately as, but
with their feigned displeasure, 'The Glamorous Grannies With Music and
Trannies'. Moving into the RPS AV scene they became more serious, covering
the lengthy restoration of Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster and the rebuilding of
a family traction engine. For the latter and to their bewilderment, they were
awarded a FIAP ribbon at the RPS Internationals.
Born in 1925, Ena was widowed in 1968 with five children and plunged into
the mans world of buying meat at auctions for the growing butchering business,
together with valued work in the community for which she was honoured by
being made Mayor three times in her home town Thorne.
Her garden featured in some productions and the former vicar of Thorne The
Rev David Benson said “I always knew when Ena had done the church
flowers”. She quickly mastered the new wonders of modern technology without
needing to rely on her grandchildren as many do.
Ray Bramall, President o