Author: Sonja Francis

THE organisers of Operation Christmas Child are making a special appeal to the people of Thame and the surrounding villages this year. In 2008, the international charity was responsible for sending over 1.2 million shoeboxes full of Christmas gifts, 16,000 from a warehouse in Abingdon alone, to underprivileged children in other parts of the world.

To cope with the logistics of this massive, voluntary effort it needs to open a second operational centre for this area and plans this to be based in the Thame region.

The charity is looking for an empty warehouse in the area, which it can use from late October to early December. This will be used for the collecting and packing of the shoeboxes ready for despatch to Belarus.

Operation Christmas Child would like to invite organisations, schools, places of work and churches to promote the filling of boxes by their members.

“Many in the Thame area have been contributing in this way for a number of years and we would like to thank them for their tremendous efforts,” said local co-ordinators Janet Hulett and Gill Wagstaff.

As Belarus is a cold country, Operation Christmas Child likes to send over warm hats, scarves and gloves to the children, so if there are any knitters out there, it can supply them with patterns and possibly some wool.

The charity is also looking for donations of suitable items such as good quality small toys, new soft toys, toiletries, educational supplies (such as pens, pencils and paper) and sweets with a sell-by-date to be at least March, 2010.

It is eager to hear from anyone in the Thame area who can assist with any of the above requests. Anyone able to help or who requires further information should contact the charity (Samaritans Purse) on 020 8559 1180 or e-mail Janet at janetshoebox@googlemail.com.

Photo: courtesy of brushycreek.org

CAMPAIGNERS for keeping local doctors for local hospitals are urging the Primary Care Trust to hold a public meeting in Thame, as part of a review into changes in medical cover at Thame hospital.

At a meeting of the board of the Buckinghamshire Primary Trust on Tuesday (September 29, 2009), Elizabeth Orde-Browne from the League of Friends of Thame Hospital, Mike and Beth Doyle from Thame and Drs Richard Harrington and Duncan Keeley from the Rycote Practice, learned that a review group was being set up by the PCT to look into the new arrangements for medical cover at the community hospitals.

Elizabeth Orde-Browne asked whether at least one member of the public from the Thame area would be included in the review board, and whether the review board would be happy to attend a public meeting in Thame to hear the views of local people, but Mr Stewart George, Chair of the PCT Board, said that it would not be right for him to determine how the review should go about its work.

Dr Duncan Keeley asked for the exact reasons for the reduction from 12 to 8 beds at Thame hospital that had taken place just as the new medical cover arrangements started, and received an undertaking from PCT Chief Executive Ed Macalister-Smith that he would write after the meeting with the answer to that question.

Dr Richard Harrington asked about the re-launch of the group to advise on the redevelopment of Thame Hospital of which he had been a member, and was assured that the group would start work soon.

Mike Doyle asked for reassurance that the PCT would listen to local voices and taken proper professional advice in deciding the way forward.

The board received the latest signatures to the petition to keep local doctors responsible for medical cover at Thame Hospital, which now carries over 3,800 signatures.

After the meeting Dr Keeley said: “We very much welcome the announcement of the review. We will be very keen to see adequate public representation in the group?s membership, and strongly support the idea of a public meeting being held in Thame so that local people can hear the arguments and make their voices heard. We still feel that while the public consultation is in progress the previous and better arrangements for medical cover at Thame should be put back in place so that the closed beds can be re-opened.”

Dr Harrington added: “We would urge local people who are concerned over the changes to sign the petition if they have not already done so, and we would encourage anyone who is interested to write with their views to Mr David Lunn Chair, Medical Cover for Community Hospitals Review,
Buckinghamshire Primary Care Trust,
3rd Floor
Rapid House
Oxford Road
High Wycombe
HP11 2EE

The review group will be Chaired by Mr David Lunn, former Chief Executive of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and a non-executive member of the PCT board. The group will also include at least one member of the public.

The review group will take written evidence from all interested parties. Precise details of the membership and procedures of the review group will be presented to Councillor Mike Appleyard and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (the council?s health watchdog) at its next meeting on October 9th, and the group hopes to have completed its work by the end of November at the latest.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee unanimously ruled three weeks ago that the change in medical cover at the hospitals amounted to a substantial change in service. Councillor Appleyard, who was present at the PCT board meeting, emphasised that what his committee members wanted to understand were the implications for patients and patient outcomes of the change in medical cover.

THIS is a Ringmaster message from Thames Valley Police. Police are asking residents to be extra vigilant, especially in rural areas, following burglaries that have occurred in the Chinnor, Shirburn and Brightwell Baldwin, areas of South Oxfordshire.

It is believed a team are operating in the area, targeting properties to steal tools & mowers from sheds and outbuildings. Vehicles have also been stolen from some locations, and later recovered in the Wycombe area.

A report has just been received 01/10/09 at approx: 12:02hrs, in Barley Close, Lewknor, where a White Ford Transit Van was seen, part registration number S303 ***, containing white males, acting in a suspicious manner.

Please keep an extra look out and report any suspicious looking people or vehicles in the area to the police on 08458 505 505 or 999 for an immediate response.

FOLLOWING years of research, the mystery of the whereabouts of the grave of John Hampden is to be revealed.

Following a special church service at Great Hampden later in October 2009, the John Hampden Society intends to reveal the results of research into the final resting place of the statesman known to history as ‘The Patriot’, who was Oliver Cromwell’s cousin.

The Society’s Hon. Treasurer, Derek Lester, and his wife Gill have spent 25 years researching the 360 year-old mystery of the location of John Hampden’s tomb in St. Mary Magdalene Church, high up in the Chilterns, near Great Missenden.

Following his death after the Battle of Chalgrove Field in June 1643, Hampden was buried in the church, but because Great Hampden was in the front line, between Royalists and Parliamentarians, his grave
was unmarked.

In 1828, Hampden’s first biographer, Lord Nugent, exhumed what he thought was Hampden’s body, but doubts arose almost immediately that he had
found the right person, and these have continued ever since.

Following the formation of the John Hampden Society in October 1992, the Lesters embarked on extensive research using a variety of sources, and they are confident that they now know the exact spot where Hampden was interred.

The service, to be held at 11.15am on Sunday, October 25, will be a commemoration of John Hampden’s life. At the end of it Derek Lester will announce the results of his investigations and Lord Hollenden, owner of the Hampden Estate, will lay a wreath on the grave. There will be music by violinists Alexandra and Charlotte Reid.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Derek Lester explained: “John Hampden was a Buckinghamshire MP who resisted the dictatorial policies of King Charles I. He became famous for his refusal to pay the illegal Ship Money tax, and as a result was one of the Five Members whom the King tried to arrest in the House of Commons in 1642.

“At the outbreak of the Civil War Hampden raised a regiment of foot (the Buckinghamshire Greencoats), but was mortally wounded at the Battle of
Chalgrove Field on June 18, 1643, and died in Thame six days later.”