Thank You, Hilary

I imagine when our Queen dies we will all feel a deep sense of loss and, of course, grief. Yesterday morning I got some inkling of how this will feel.

For seventeen years, for as long as I can remember, Hilary Bruce has been chairman of the PG Wodehouse Society. On Monday evening at an unusually well-attended Zoom AGM (60+ members from four continents) she retired to much acclaim. Her predecessor, Norman Murphy, was a Wodehouse expert with a stupendous knowledge of Wodehouse and his massive literary output. Hilary could not compete in that department but she quietly steered the society in the right direction and was always ready to man the pumps when necessary. It was necessary for many years for committee members to convene four times a year for what became known as stuffing parties. These were sometimes long – five hours was my record – putting stamps and labels on envelopes and then stuffing same with copies of Wooster Sauce and inserts until her study was overflowing with mail bags. The society has more than a thousand members.

She recalled some of the highlights of her tenure on Monday evening.

“I took over when Norman Murphy stood down on his 70th birthday in 2003 and we’ve done quite a lot of things since then.  In 2005, we decided to Back the Berkshire, a ten-year campaign to keep Berkshire pigs off the At-Risk Register, which was very much worth doing, and also generated quite a lot of publicity for both Berkshire pigs and the PG Wodehouse Society.

In 2000, Norman and I conducted A Millennium Tour, and we completed the set of tours of Wodehouse locations in 2007 and 2012 with A Week with Wodehouse and A Weekend with Wodehouse. They were all amazing.

In 2009, we collaborated with Heywood Hill to stage a Wodehouse exhibition in their delightful shop in Mayfair. By way of publicity, we said it with pigs. I procured a large Berkshire sow, Gloria, to pose for photographs outside the shop alongside, as it turned out, Stephen Fry. Strolling companionably along Curzon Street with an enormous black and white pig is, I think, a unique experience, even before you factor in the hooting taxis, baffled tourists and anxious police cars.

In 2016, we planted a tree and laid a memorial to the cricketer Percy Jeeves, at Cheltenham Cricket Ground, followed by a lunch. Tim Andrew and I organized that event, and so flushed with success were we, that soon we embarked on the lengthy process that culminated in our Society’s ultimate achievement. It was also the ultimate accolade for PG Wodehouse when, on 20th September 2019, the Dean of Westminster dedicated a handsome memorial stone to PG Wodehouse in Westminster Abbey. I will never forget that day.

Being Chairman of our Society has made me. It has given me so much. Through it, I have met thousands of people I’d never otherwise have met, I have seen places and things I never dreamt I’d see. I’ve done things well outside any of my previous experiences and expectations. I’ve struggled to stay upright in unsavoury ground conditions, placing rosettes and sashes on gigantic pigs; I’ve talked Wodehouse with the Dean of Westminster and a Royal Prince, at the same time.

But the best and most important thing this Society has brought me has been friendship. Among the hundreds of lovely people I know through Wodehouse, I’m very fortunate to have made some true and lasting friendships, which I treasure.”

Thank You, Hilary, you gave Service With A Smile.