Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Association

Date:    Thursday 16 August 2018 at 11:30 Prompt Places available - 20:  Allocated on a first-come-first-served basis for FCOA members, spouses/ partners. NB, as a first, this visit also includes members who are looking after children in school holidays, and who may wish to bring them.  (To get the most out of the day, NSC advise […]

We shall meet at 11:15 prompt at KESR Tenterden train station.  20 places are available and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis to FCOA members and spouses/partners only. If space allows nearer the day, non-FCOA members may be eligible, but please check with Tim Handley first. The price includes return steam train to Bodiam (23 […]

This year’s annual lecture will be delivered on Friday 19 October by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC, Chancellor of the Australian National University and a former foreign minister of Australia.  The subject of the lecture will be “Global Geopolitics in Transition”.  Tickets will cost £20, to include a sandwich and a glass of wine.  The lecture […]

(With thanks to FCOA member Valerie Robinson for suggesting this visit; suggestions for other visits are always welcome.) The visit will start at 11.30 am prompt; meet at the museum entrance. Britain’s relationship with the Gurkhas can be said to date from the war of 1815 between Britain and Nepal (surprisingly) which led to the […]

Nick Morrison, a Blue Badge guide, who has in the past taken us on two walks, has agreed to show a party around St James’s with particular reference to the glittering and turbulent era - 1789-1914 - in which St James’s housed great aristocrats, collectors, musicians, writers, parvenus and even revolutionaries, who were lionised and […]

By kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, the Purcell Club will take us on a tour of the Abbey.  The Purcell Club is named after Henry Purcell, who was organist of the Abbey from 1679-1695.  It is a male voice choir formed predominantly from members of the Westminster Abbey Old Choristers’ Association.  […]

Date: 13 June 2019 at 12:00 Prompt. Places available:    25 Allocated on a first-come-first-served basis Price per person:    £43 - includes entry to both venues, free tasting of 5 wines , and a cheese and charcuterie board lunch. Description:   The Mount Vineyard, Shoreham, began producing wine in 2004.  With 5 varieties of white, and […]

David Thompson, who previously took us on an excellent tour of the Wren Churches, will give us a brief history of the Mansion House but this is essentially a visit to see the Harold Samuel Collection of Dutch & Flemish 17 th century paintings, bequeathed to the City of London in 1987. The collection of […]