THE Chiltern Fuchsia Society's first meeting of the year will be next Thursday, February 28, at the garden centre at 8pm, when the Society's chairman, Stan Hildreth, will be giving a talk entitled Fuchsias Preparing for Spring. New members will be most welcome. If you would like to join please contact Cyril Brown on 01753 885369 or Sylvia Anderson on 01753 882873.

THE next meeting of the Handicraft Group at Deanway United Church will be on Monday next, February 25. On Saturday, March 2, the group will be holding a Glass Painting Workshop from 10am-4pm. The tutor will be Jackie Collins. I will give you more details of this when they are to hand hopefully next week.

IN case you don't read my Amersham Column, I have been asked to tell you about Rushymead Hospice Day Care Centre, based in Coleshill, as apparently some of their patients are from Chalfont St Giles.

THIS coming Sunday, February 24, there is a race night at Mr Poon's Chinese Restaurant in London Road, Chalfont St Giles. This will commence at 7pm and tickets are £25 each, to include a full Chinese meal and complete race programme. All proceeds to the hospice day centre.

RUSHYMEAD is also in need of voluntary helpers in all capacities, and is holding a recruitment evening at the hospice on Wednesday, March 6, at 7.30pm. It will be a very informal occasion with a glass of wine on arrival. The hospice would like people to ring and register. The fundraising co-ordinator is Gail Thomson on 01494 434110. Gail's mobile number is 07976 810034.

LAST week I told you about the handsome and talented film actor, Robert Donat, who once lived in Chalfont St Giles, and now you might be interested, and possibly surprised, to know that the very famous circus impresario, Bertram Mills, also once lived in Pollards Wood.

Bertram Mills was born in London in August 1873. His father, Halford Mills, was the owner of a coachbuilding works in Paddington and also owned two farms one at Harefield and the other in Chalfont St Giles, where he sent his horses to rest. It was on these farms that Bertram Mills spent most of his childhood and where he was taught to ride. He left school at 15 to work in the family business, washing down coaches. Within a year he had graduated to driving a four-in-hand from London to Oxford.

Bertram Mills married his wife, Ethel, in 1901 and continued working in the family business until the outbreak of World War One, serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps and rising to the rank of captain. When he left the army he became interested in Wilkins and Young Circus and then inspiration dawned, and he made his decision to form his own circus, and the wonderful Bertram Mills International Circus was born. It soon became the annual Christmas event. By 1930 he had inaugurated a touring circus which became unique among British circuses, always appearing at Olympia for the Christmas season. Among the guests of the show were Winston Churchill and Ramsey MacDonald. The Royal Family were also great supporters.

Bertram Mills died at his home in Pollards Wood on April 16, 1938. he was cremated at Golders Green, and later his ashes were brought to Chalfont St Giles in a brake drawn by his two favourite black horses. His grave is in the parish churchyard, and is marked by a granite Celtic cross. The grave is adjacent to the War Memorial.

By Josie Ricketts