Over 50 members attended the Pembroke Probus Club's annual general meeting and luncheon at the Cleddau Bridge Hotel on Tuesday.

Outgoing president Robert Gorman handed over the chain of office to incomer David Holt and other officers and committee members were appointed.

A new member, Matt Thompson, was inducted, bringing the full membership to 71.

Over 40 members sat down to a tasty carvery lunch after the presentation by the visiting guest speaker - Swansea-born Mervyn Thomas Jones BA, diplomat and former governor of Turks and Caicos Islands, one of our 14 remaining overseas territories.

The former governor began his talk with his first posting, which was to India, and the vibrancy of Calcutta with all of its vagaries was suddenly in the room with his listeners. He went on to tell members of his 40-year career with FCO (The Foreign and Commonwealth Office) that brought him various postings; Bonn, Warsaw, Oslo, Bangkok, Los Angeles, Brussels, before completing at the Turks and Caicos Islands, where his position as a governor based in the governor's residence, proudly named Waterloo, on the island of Grand Turk, required him to assist and advise on the governance of the 57 islands, ostensibly to help run the government of the Turks and Caicos and its 17,000 inhabitants.

Mention was made of his time in austere Poland in the early '70s where folk there were suffering terrible shortages, sometimes having to wait for a month or so after purchasing one boot or shoe for its partner to be available.

However, on a happier note, he was able to report that the Catholic church still thrived in the communist state.

Whilst in Bangkok, he was appointed Bard in the St. David's Society there, and when posted to Los Angeles, managed to attend a Mormon celebration of Welsh week in Salt Lake City where a large proportion of the hundreds attending a musical evening acknowledged their Welsh connections and even a quarter of the choir were Welsh.

Alas, 40 minutes was insufficient time to cover 40 years in the FCO. Consequently, his time in Turks and Caicos will be subject of another talk when he revisits Pembroke.

The vote of thanks was given by Bob Butterworth, outgoing committee member, longtime friend and Deputy Bard of the speaker from their time together as Bangkok hands in the early '80s.

Further details of Pembroke Probus from the speaker's secretary on 01646 683708.