Fraud Prevention – PC David Mills & Emily Jenner – 4 February 2026
PC David Mills and Fraud Prevention Officer, Emily Jenner, from Kent Police gave a very interesting and helpful presentation on fraud prevention. This proved a very topical subject for club members with 32 attendees.
Last year over 40% of reported crime was fraud related even though a great deal of fraud goes unreported due to victims feeling embarrassed. The talk was very comprehensive covering 3 main types of fraud – smishing (instant messaging), pfishing (email) and vishing (phone calls) – what to took out for and the steps that can be taken to avoid becoming a victim of fraud. They also gave practical tips such as employing the ABC method when contacted by a potential fraudster:
- Assume – never assume that the request is genuine
- Believe – never believe that the caller is legitimate and who they say they are.
- Confirm – always confirm for yourself that the request is legitimate.
Other tips included not answering calls from withheld numbers unless you are expecting a call that could be, always use a different phone to checkout the legitimacy of the enquiry or, if that is not possible, ensure that the line has been cleared e.g. by calling a trusted friend, before using the phone again. If seeking a trades’ person, use the list of traders on the Kent County Council website as these have been vetted by Trading Standards.
The talk also covered recent fraudulent trends in the local area such as cold callers offering to do home repairs or improvements and fraudulent QR codes attached to parking payment machines.
Finally, My Community Voice was introduced a two-way engagement tool that enables local people to find out what is happening in their area, receive alerts and let the local police know what matters most to them.
We were really grateful to David and Emily for such an interesting and practical presentation.
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Essential Oils – Lorraine Squires – 24 September 2025
Lorraine gave a fascinating talk on essential oils and the role they play as one of the four essential steps in managing anxiety and stress, improving sleep quality and memory, pain and inflammation relief, skin and hair health. We enjoyed the talk and the opportunity to sample a range of essential oils for ourselves. This included lavender, rosemary and peach.
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Tales of the (Medway) Riverbank – 16 April 2025
We welcomed Dave Burton. As an accomplished and knowledgeable speaker on a very wide range of local history subjects, Dave entertained us greatly with tales of the (Medway) Riverbank. Highlights included tales of pressgangs, a number of manufacturing successes such as the Short S.25 Sunderland aircraft, submarines, airships, steam-powered windmills and steam rollers, and blots on the landscape such as prison hulks in the late 18th to mid 19th century. To name but a few of the topics covered.
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The Good, The Bad and the Ugly – 13 November 2024
We welcomed back a regular speaker at our Stroke Club – Christoph Bull. As a local historian, speaker, guide, author and librarian of over 35 years, Christoph is never short of interesting subjects to speak on. This time the talk focused fascinating insights from his extensive career as a librarian. Who knew libraries could be the subject of such an interesting talk.
The History and Restoration of Paddle Steamer Medway Queen – 18 September 2024
Mark Bathurst delivered a fascinating insight into paddle steamer the Medway Queen, a heroine of Dunkirk, as she celebrates her centenary year. Mark’s presentation was very well attended by club members. We learned that she has crammed a lot into her first hundred years including pleasure cruising, mine-sweeping, no less than 7 return trips during the Dunkirk Evacuations successfully steering 7000 soldiers to safety, and a spell around the Isle of Wight as the Medway Queen Club.
Following her return to Medway in 1984, the Medway Queen Preservation Society was formed and after years of fundraising, including National Lottery funding, she continues her restoration and is now open to the public at Gillingham Pier on most Saturdays.
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Christmas Meal and a Light-hearted Look at Christmas – 6 December 2023
Our Christmas lunch at Gillingham Golf Club proved very popular with an excellent turn-out from Medway Stroke Club members. We were very well looked after by everyone at the Golf Club and enjoyed a four course meal and crackers with the corniest of corny Christmas jokes e.g. what do you call a frozen elf? An elfcicle!
Once we had finished our meal and enjoyed a hot drink with mince pies, we were greatly entertained by Club favourite Mel Rees with his light-hearted look at Christmas including the time his wife received a gift of mealworms from their son, and the circuitous route Mel’s parents took every Christmas Eve usually arriving 3 and a half hours late for dinner.
The service from Gillingham Golf Club was excellent, as usual.
Diamonds are Forever – 23 August 2023
Even if you think you know your sapphire from your amethyst, emerald, ruby or garnet, we all learned something from this fascinating talk on gemstones, and in particular the 12 birthstones. Our speaker Annie was exceptionally knowledgeable on the subject of gemstones and club members were extremely interested in the subject judging by the many questions raised and answered. We all received a very informative leaflet to take home to supplement the talk. We hope to hear more talks on the subject of gemstones in the future.
A Light-Hearted Look At Life – Mel Rees – 21 June 2023
Mel Rees gave another of his excellent talks taking a light-hearted look at life. Topics were wide ranging – beige, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, amazing!, his honeymoon trip to Yeovil in a Ford Cortina, being served breakfast in bed but missing an essential ingredient – OK Sauce, birthday cards, diabetes nurse, Weight Watchers and looking forward to retirement and more time for hobbies. Its hard to do justice to Mel’s talk in such a few words – we look forward to him returning on another occasion to entertain us again.
Building A Steam Engine – Mark Lyons – 25 May 2023
We had a fascinating talk by Mark Lyons on the history of steam engines and how to build one. We also heard the downsides such as the time it takes for enough steam to be generated to operate the engine, and the oil required to keep the pistons moving. Ultimately steam engines were replaced by electricity but we were still able to see one in operation thanks to a demonstration of a working model by Mark. Thank you Mark for a very interesting talk.
27th February 2020
The most haunted village in England
26th. March 2020
Who’s Who in Hoo
2nd April
Pluckley Village
7th May
Patricia Davey-Cooking Demo
4th June
Community Nurses