May 26, 2017

Members will be sad to learn of the recent death of Eric Bingham at the age of 94. Eric was a long-time member and was at one time the Society’s membership secretary.

In 1995 Eric and his late wife Hilda wrote a deeply researched piece about Robert Somervell, Churchill’s history master at Harrow: see Finest Hour 86. In My Early Life, Churchill had written that his debt to Mr Somervell was great and that it was due to him that he had got into his bones “the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence – which is a noble thing.”

Eric and Hilda were able to quote from Mr Somervell’s letter of thanks to WSC on receipt of a signed copy of the book: “My wife seized upon it and could talk of nothing else at lunch. Now I have taken my first dip, and find it so delightful that I think I shall have to ration myself to so many pages a day, to prolong the pleasure. It is most admirably done, and your kind mention of me touches me deeply.”