CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

Martin Harris

Tel. 07720 823364

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

David Martin

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Graham Pirie

MEMBERS PAGE

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Next Meeting...

Wednesday

12th August 2026

'My Role in the RAF'

Presenter - Air Vice Marshall Ross Paterson

Club News

Secretary email: macblack.author@gmail.com

At the meeting in Castlehill Community Hall on 22nd July, Chairman, John Parker, welcomed everyone, including a new member Graham Lang, and the Speaker for the day, one of our own members, Roddy Greig.

Graham Lang was given the opportunity to introduce himself to the members. He is a Glaswegian now living in Fife, who has retired from his own business of structural engineering. A lot of the work was on Orkney and Shetland associated with the oil industry, and with some work too on Gibraltar. He is a loyal supporter of Howe of Fife RFC.

Roddy Greig joined Cupar Probus Club in 2021. A founder member of Fife Family History Society with genealogy in his DNA, today he told us of his latest find for his own family tree in a talk entitled 'A Suffragette in the Family'.

A Suffragette in the Family

Our speaker today was member Roddy Greig. He stated he knew nothing about today’s topic until he met a distant relative in Glasgow’s Central Station about their family connection. Discovering they had great grandparents in common, Roddy was told he had a suffragette in the family.

Teresa Billington was the lady in question born into a very strong Catholic family with whom she rebelled against. As a teacher she refused to teach religious education and consequently was moved to a Jewish school in Manchester where she was excused RE.

She became very enthusiastically involved in the Suffragette movement along with Emmeline Pankhurst. She also became embroiled in the then new Labour Party and was well connected with Keir Hardie, a pacifist who advocated for women’s rights.

Not averse to fighting with police, which landed her in jail from which she refused to leave despite a well-wisher paying her fine. She battled with local NE Fife MP Henry Asquith and Dundee MP Winston Churchill who neither liked her nor the movement. Asquith kept out of her way but came out of hiding at Pitlessie which she claimed as a victory.

We were shown images of her addressing the public at the Cross in Cupar, Falkland, Markinch, Leslie, Kingskettle, Freuchie, Strathmiglo, Dunshalt and Pitlessie. She vowed she would not marry until women got the vote. However not much time passed before she did marry a billiard and snooker table manufacturer, Burroughs Teresa Billington Greig went on to found The Women’s Freedom League and became very critical of Churchill. She returned to journalism and never really continued in politics, writing about women’s issues. All her work is in store at the London School of Economics. Much of the information is noted in the various newspapers of the time

Following questions from members, the vote of thanks was given by Chairman John Parker.

Graham Pirie

Would you like to join us?

New members will be very welcome, so, if you are someone who has retired and you are looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings, please contact our Secretary or, better still, pop-in to one of our meetings. If you know of someone, encourage them to attend.

Our next meeting will be on 12th August, and the speaker will be Air Vice Marshall Ross Paterson. His talk is entitled 'My Role in the RAF'. We hope to see you there!