Lunches
The lunches are held on the third Thursday of each month at 11.30 for 12.30 in the Homestead Court Hotel in Welwyn Garden City. Dress is normally smart casual with a jacket and tie for the men. Expect to get away by 3pm. The three course lunch with coffee costs £30 and includes a starter, meat main course, a dessert or cheese and biscuits, and coffee. An alternative main course “chef’s selection of fish”, may be pre-booked when registering for the lunch.
On arrival for lunch members check in by the hotel reception. Those who have ordered a variant from the menu will receive an envelope containing cards which indicate a diner's choice of alternative for the 'Starter, Main Course and Desert or Cheese and Biscuits’. They should be displayed on their lunch table to help the waiting staff. A cash bar is open for drinks before, and with the meal.
Lunches must be booked no later than the Friday of the week before the lunch. The club has recently introduced an online lunch booking scheme which has made life easier for both lunch attendees, the Lunch Secretary and other committee members. Links to the online booking forms are emailed to members about one month ahead of each upcoming lunch. Details of the lunches, along with the necessary booking forms are also included in the Newsletter. The club also strongly encourages lunch payment by online bank transfer.
Any Member who is unable to attend after booking is responsible for the cost unless a cancellation is notified by the Friday previous to the booked lunch.
Some individual members reserve seats for themselves and their guests by placing cards on the tables. Whilst this has disadvantages and is less than ideal, nobody has yet come up with a more acceptable idea!
Details of the talks to be given at the next two lunches are given below. The dates and times of Lunches, outings and other upcoming events, can be found on the Google Calendar of HELC Events. This is currently set as Agenda view, but you can change to Week or Month view; you can also print a list of events over any range of dates you choose. Public Holidays are shown in green text, all HELC items are a different colour. Click on an event to see full details, including a link to a map of the meeting point or venue.
19 February 2026
A Generalist amongst Experts
Julia Ryan
Anecdotes celebrating the role of experts, particularly in enacting and informing government and international policy, from the point of view of a career generalist. There are stories about famous aircraft, the fastest car, the best way to store weapons and ammunition and refereeing squabbles amongst spies!
Julia worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence for over 20 years, in roles including Defence Sales, Low Flying Aircraft Complaints, Counter Proliferation & Arms Control and Service Personnel Policy. After leaving in 2011, Julia has enjoyed expanding her knowledge working variously as an Investigator for Service Personnel Complaints, in schools in London and Essex as a clerk to School Governors, as a consultant and then Managing Director of a tech start-up and currently as the Business Development Manager at the Royal Gunpowder Mills.
19 March 2026
Paragliding
Miles Radcliffe
Paragliding is a recreational and competitive sport of flying paragliders. These are a type of parachute that are foot or tow-launched aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing. Like gliders, the pilots do not have an engine and need to harness wind and thermals to gain altitude and fly across the country. The sport is relatively young having evolved from skydiving in the late 70’s. The current UK distance record is 329 kilometres and the current world record is 613 kilometres.
Miles was fascinated with the Apollo space program and Jacques Cousteau’s undersea world from an early age. The exploration of these new frontiers fuelled his interest in science but also in different sports as well. At college, Miles took up skydiving and then qualified as a scuba diver a few years later. He was very fortunate to enjoy these sports for several years while family and work commitments were light and he lived in the right location. Miles decided to do a paragliding course in 2010 after a “taster” session and qualified as a basic pilot later that year. Since then, Miles has flown over 1000 hours in 9 countries, achieved a full pilot rating, is an active coach for new pilots and a former chairman of a local club. It may surprise you to know that Miles is not an “adrenaline junky” but someone who enjoys his science and hobbies and balances risk and reward carefully.
