As a result of a chance meeting with our Speaker Secretary, Rtn. Henry Dent, while on holiday in Scotland eighteen months ago, our speaker on the 27th April, 2015, was John Leeson who travelled from Surrey to talk to us about “Fifty years in an institution”. This title conjured up all sorts of theories but it turned out to be John’s experiences as a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. John was born in Suffolk in 1945 and in 1961 he decided he wanted to become a civil engineer and after attending university in 1963 gained his qualification and in l969 began what turned out to be a career which took him to many corners of the world, starting with a move to Holland on an international exchange where he worked with Ove Arup. He married in 1970 and his next move was to Rhodesia, where he became resident engineer and worked on the Victoria Falls. His next post was as a design engineer and he was responsible for setting up a Steel Works which he saw grow from 2000 to 20000 employees over a relatively short period. John was able to take his family with him on his foreign postings and his work has taken him to Iraq, where he worked on a Water Treatment Plant, to Japan, where he was seconded to Kebe Steel. He experienced a culture tour of Hiroshima and also an earthquake while in Japan before his return to mainland Europe. In 1993-95 he worked in Belgium. He set up his own firm, J.P.Leeson Ltd and in 2005 moved to Sri Lanka where he built houses. John is now enjoying a well earned retirement and he was thanked by President Gillian Brown for taking us on an interesting journey of his life’s work
more Andrew Hawker, a Trustee of the 2nd Air Division (USAAF) Memorial Library, which is situated in The Forum, Norwich, gave a talk about the U.S.Eighth Air Force operations and deployment in Norfolk and North-east Suffolk, during the Second World War.