Speaker Tom Wilson

Rotary Club of Stirling meeting of 8/5/15
President David Paterson opened the meeting by welcoming two visitors from Callendar Rotary, PP Dorothy Kinloch and Rotarian Anne Ross.
Our collection in the Thistle Center on behalf of the Nepal earthquake fund raised the remarkable sum of £1350.The money collected will pay for sending two shelter boxes and the purchase of a further two boxes.
Colin Bayes recounted our dramatic win of the Wilkenden golf trophy, the third time in four years. It will fall to us to organise the event again next year.
Stewart Wilson passed the sheet round for members to man our stand at Gardening Scotland from 29th to the 31st of May.
Anne Ross from the Callendar club gave us information on two events being run by Callendar Rotary. The AM/AM golf in July and the annual sponsored ascent of Ben Ledi.
Our member Tom Wilson told us the tale of a special Sea Cat. The cat in question was picked up as a stray on Stonecutter Island Hong Kong in 1947, and taken on board by an ordinary seaman. Fortunately the Captain was a cat lover, and he soon became very much part of the ship's company, becoming chief rat catcher and eventually able sea cat Simon.
He ended up on HMS Amethyst on it's hazardous voyage up the Yangtze ,shelled and aground100 miles up river, refloated and eventually trapped for 101 days. Technically a neutral vessel, this was not how the Chinese communist regime viewed them, and they were unwilling to release the Amethyst with it's cargo of rescued diplomats. Eventually, disguised as a freighter the warship slipped downstream at night and escaped, but with many casualties including Simon. He recovered and was awarded the Dicken medal, the highest award for animal bravery. Unfortunately he died before it could be presented, and the medal eventually went to auction, bought by an American film studio for £23,000 .
The vote of thanks was given by SVP Peter Mehta.
Next week's speaker's host John Rankin, visitors' host Sandy Leven.
Visit the club' website www.stirling.rotary1010.org Ian Richardson