P.S. Medway Queen
Members, Supporters, Guests and Friends Christmas Lunch.

River Valley Golf Club, Oak Lane, Upchurch, Sittingbourne. ME9 7AY.
Sunday 14th December 2014; 1.30pm for 2.00pm

Luncheon Menu £15.50p

Starter:-   
·        Homemade Soup of the Day, with croutons and a swirl of cream!
·        Prawn Cocktail; Prawns coated in a Marie Rose Sauce on a bread base, topped with mixed lettuce leaves and finished with a salad garnish ·        A slice of Fanned Melon with fresh Orange and Kiwi segments finished with a fine Raspberry Coulis. ·        A smooth Duck and Orange Pate with Redcurrant and Port Sauce. ·       “Rivers” Egg Salad, a fan of hard boiled egg on a nest of salad leaves lightly coated with mayonnaise and with a hint of English mustard.

Main Course:-  
·        Slices of tender Turkey Breast with Chipolata Sausage wrapped in Streaky Bacon with a rich gravy and a traditional Yorkshire pudding.
·        Prime slices of English Topside of Beef with a rich gravy and a traditional Yorkshire Pudding.
·        Roast Leg of Lamb with a rich gravy and a traditional Yorkshire pudding.
·        Slices of tender leg of Pork with Crackling, rich gravy and a traditional Yorkshire pudding.
·        Pan Fried Salmon fillet, with white wine fish sauce, finished with cream and snipped chives (£1.60p supplement payable).
·        A pan fried breast of chicken dressed with grilled mushrooms & tomato half, with a rich gravy and a traditional Yorkshire pudding ( £1.50p supplement payable ).
·        Grilled 8oz Rump Steak with grilled mushrooms, tomato half and a traditional Yorkshire pudding. (£2.70p supplement payable ) Please state degree of cooking.
·       Vegetarian Dishes:- Vegetarian Lasagne; Three Cheese Pasta & Broccoli Bake; Chilli Bean, Celery and Coriander Casserole with timbale of Rice; Tandoori Vegetable Masala: Nut Roast with Vegetarian Gravy.

All main courses served with roasted and new potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Dessert Course:-     From the Trolley

Tea and Coffee.

For full details, to make a booking or if you have any special requirements, please contact us, we will be pleased to help. 
Join us for a lovely meal – a wonderful way to start your Christmas celebrations!

Mark or Pam Bathurst on Telephone No. 01843 227941, Mob. 07970 942125, email: [email protected]

The Medway Queen Preservation Society is pleased to announce that the Hon. Sir William McAlpine Bt. has agreed to join them as a Patron of the society. Sir William is well known in the preservation world and is active in many steam railway and other transport restoration projects. His considerable experience in various aspects of transport heritage preservation will be an enormous asset to the society in meeting the future challenges that it faces.

“The Medway Queen – rebuilding the hull” is a companion volume to “The Medway Queen” published in 2013 and is to the same size and format (72 A4 pages) but with a higher photographic content, mostly in full colour. The book contains a short summary of the ship’s history followed by the story of her rebuild in Bristol with many photographs taken in the dockyard during the project including “behind the scenes” shots in the workshops. The story concludes with the re-dedication ceremony in July 2013, the tow to Medway and the ship’s arrival at Gillingham Pier. Besides many previously unseen pictures from the dockyard there are historical shots from the PSPS Collection, National Maritime Museum and elsewhere that you may not have seen previously. The new book has been co-authored by Bob Stokes (Project Manager) and Richard Halton and produced for the Medway Queen Preservation Society by Noodle Books who are well known for their railway interest publications.

The society’s website shop is already open for pre-ordering the book and it will go on sale at the Visitor Centre very early in November. A signing day is planned for Saturday 22nd November from 11am with last admissions at 3pm. In addition to the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of the new book and the earlier history of the ship by the same author you will be able to go on board the ship and, of course, do a little shopping in the Visitor Centre.

Cllr Pat Cooper, the Local Authority representative  on the Medway Queen Preservation Society Committee,  and Labour Councillor for Gillingham, North Ward where the Medway Queen is berthed, tabled a Motion to the Full Council on October 16th about the Medway Queen.

The Motion read:

Medway Council notes the special contribution made by the Medway Queen Paddle Steamer to the history of the UK.
Council believes that the Medway Queen deserves recognition and support as an important part of our Maritime Heritage.
Council requests Cabinet to receive a report setting out details of any funding streams and other support available to the Medway Queen Preservation Society to:

1. enable the ship to participate in Operation Dynamo in Ramsgate in May 2015 and to

      2.   help restore the Medway Queen to full operational use again in the longer term.

She then relayed her speech to the Council members (below in blue)

Thank you Mr Mayor.

As members can see, I have changed the Tenor of the Motion after taking advice from Officers. At the last Full Council Meeting it was a case of Passion before Procedure, however I will now explain the motion put before you tonight.
I have also  produced a folder, a pocket history of the Medway Queen. Hard  copies have been given to leading members, and officers, and there are also some available on your  desks . Also a link to our Crowdfunding appeal  has also been sent to all members and I hope you have been able to watch it.

Mr Mayor, I have only been Medway Council's  representative on the Medway Queen Preservation Society Committee since May this year. The Medway Queen is berthed at Gillingham Pier which is in Gillingham North Ward, she is there  proudly  alongside the LV 21 Lightship, and the sailing ship The Cambria.
The primary objective for our Medway Queen is to get her to a Full working condition, but that is going to take money, a boiler  to make the steam, internal infrastructure ,Instructors, aprrenticies,  volunteers,and a whole host of other peripheral  isues as well.

We really need funding Mr Mayor, which is the object of the motion, but I didn't want to come SAILORS CAP in HAND  if you like Mr Mayor to Medway Council as such which is why I tried the Developers Contibutions first, but was told it was not legal to do so.

First of all though Mr Mayor, we want to get her to take part in the 75th Anniversary of Dunkirk being held in Ramsgate next May.
Our Dunkirk  appeal has been launched, and Crowdfunder up and running, but it will take a whole lot more than this to get the Medway Queen to where she can be the Pride of Medway once again, in Ramsgate, and be there with all the other famous Dunkirk Little Ships.

It is going to be a huge Event Mr Mayor, it is called OPERATION DYNAMO , SO NAMED AFTER THE ORIGINAL OPERATION IN MAY 1940. We have had a visit from the Co Ordinator of this event, and at this moment she is putting together a Lottery Bid , that will include the Medway Queen as part of the bid.We won't know the result of this, if it is successful, until about Christmastime. Royalty will be present, at this auspicious occasion, and fly pasts  by historic war planes,and a whole host of other attractions as well. It will be beamed world wide,AND what a thought Mr Mayor ,members, to have the name of Medway Beamed  possibly round  the world.
She will have to be towed there of course, but nevertheless  this is a huge event.

Mr Mayor we have had a film made about the Medway Queen, and we hope to engage with   the BBC, it is a  work in  progress at the moment, but very moving containing as it does dialogue, photos and actual film   from her construction to her wartime heroics, and beyond, with memories of some still living people who owed their lives to this gallant Ship.

I have also , with the agreement of the Developers, at  the new Chatham Waters  development managed  to name the first  road in the development as DYNAMO WAY. The connection to  Operation Dynamo.
The Medway Queen has been part of Medway Council's Heritage Days, and we had lots of visitors to the ship who marvelled at what they saw. We are actively persuing the Young People for educational purposes through the schools that we are linked with.

I have written to both LEGO and Airfix to find out if a model could be made of the Medway Queen for sale, and  received helpful replies as to wht to do next from both.

So Mr Mayor, members, I am asking, on behalf really of the 7.000 soldiers , who were saved by the crew and the Medway Queen,  from the beaches of Dunkirk in May 1940,  and all the dedicated people who have worked so hard to get her here in Gillingham ,to vote favourably on the motion, and help the Medway Queen to fulfill her dream.

Thank you Mr Mayor.


The motion was immediately seconded by the Cllr Chisti who is also the Conservative  member of parliament for Gillingham and  Rainham.
Briefly for readers of this information, all Political  Parties on Medway Council supported this motion, and proceeded to say just how much the Medway Queen means to the Local people and indeed across the Nation.
Cllr Chisti was able to advise that he had already written to Lord West one of our Patrons and was having a meeting this week with him. He also paid tribute to Former Labour MP Jonathan Shaw who worked very hard for the Medway Queen when he was the Local Labour MP.
Colleagues in the Labour Group were also extremely supportive and Cllr Teresa Murray  gave helpful suggestions about Funding Streams such as the Local Enterprise Funding .

The Leader of the Council Cllr Rodney Chambers explained about what the Council had already done in the way of past funding, especially for our apprentices..
It was an extraordinary night , with many Councillors speaking  supporting the Medway Queen,  my Motion, and everyone who is trying to make the dream of a fully operational ship come true once again.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Diana Smith also explained that her late Husband George Smith would have been proud to support the motion as well.

We feel very proud that the whole of Medway Council is behind our Medway Queen.

We have also had a visit from Radio Kent, and this happened yesterday afternoon. Philip  Harrison interviewed Brian Burton the Chair of MQPS and Bob Stokes former project manager, and Cllr Pat Cooper on board the ship. This broadcast will possibly be sometime this week. Probably on the Julia George Show. if that is correct. We hope that we all came across well.

Cllr Pat Cooper
Local Authority representative on the Medway Queen Preservation Society
Labour Councillor for Gillingham, North Ward

We are delighted to say that our volunteers Keith Ginn MBE and Robert Last have been awarded Highly Commended certificates via  National Historic Ship UK, under an awards scheme  sponsored by the Marsh Christian Trust. 
Keith and Rob have given hours of volunteer time and effort to the restoration of the PS Medway Queen, we put them up for the volunteer over 25 and under 25 awards, even though they just missed out on the top spot, they still received this certificate of recognition.
Well done Kieth and Rob!