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.
16 July 2026
The White Lady
Helen Fry
Intelligence gathering was essential to both sides in the First and Second World Wars. At the heart of MI6’s efforts were two key networks in Belgium. Agents in The White Lady acted as couriers, radio operators and spies to facilitate the end of German control. When war broke out again two decades later, the leaders of the network regrouped and established a successor: The Clarence Service.
Helen Fry charts the history of these pivotal intelligence networks. Drawing on recently declassified information, Helen Fry examines who the agents were, how they were recruited, and how the intelligence they gathered directly impacted the outcome of both wars. Field operators sent many radio messages and reports to London including ground breaking information on Hitler’s secret weapon the V-1.
Dr Helen Fry is no stranger to our lunch talks and is a renowned WW 2 historian. Since her first fascinating talk to us in 2018 members will remember her fascinating talk in 2018 "Bugging the Nazis". Her other talks have included "WWII London (The London Cage), The Mystery of Rudolf Hess, MI9 – Escape and Evasion and Spymaster – The Man who saved MI6
20 August 2026
Murders of their time
Nik Pringle
Murders of their time detail a number of Hertfordshire murder cases that have significant features that lean towards an era of history. None of them are cited as important cases by historians, but hopefully Nik brings their cases back to life and means they are not forgotten.
Nik Pringle was born in Kenya, the son of a Forensic Pathologist, an only child, living on a remote coffee farm with no TV, meant he had read every book in the house by the age of 12, which included various pathology text books & in particular several text books on Forensic Pathology & murders. This gave rise to his interest in murders...........
He joined the Hertfordshire Constabulary in 1980 and after 4 years became the Coroners Officer at Watford. A post he held for 8 years before moving to Hemel Hempstead Police Station, as a neighbourhood officer, but was quickly asked to modernise the Coroners Office ready for civilianisation, which took another 6 months. He returned to Neighbourhood Policing but retained a number of specialisms - DVI (Body Recovery Officer), Search Team & Exhibits Officer (Inc Major Crime), which meant that one way & another he was involved in virtually all Herts murders over the next 20 years. Nik retired as a police officer in 2010, but 48 hours later returned as a volunteer Special Inspector retaining the specialisms - a post he continued in for another 14 years giving 44 years service in uniform.
