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Churchill Society 57th Annual Memorial Banquet

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A sold-out crowd of one hundred and twenty illustrious guests attended the Annual Memorial Banquet of the Sir Winston Churchill Society on June 7, 2023, in the beautiful Winspear Dining Room at the University Club. On cue, our piper, Mr. Alistair Briggs led the head table procession: our guest speaker Mr. Anthony Tucker-Jones and Mrs. Amelia Tucker-Jones, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Alberta Mr. Bill Flanagan, Mr. Saffron Sri, our President Mr. Will Randall II, and Mr. Graham Axford.

Student competition winners and their coaches were honoured at a special ceremony preceding the banquet and recognized during the banquet.

The military was well-represented among our accomplished guests, resplendent in black tie, mess kit, or evening wear; many with decorations for service to our country. Attendees included notable persons from professional communities including business, the law, medicine, science, the academe, sports, and the arts. There was much lively and stimulating conversation over cocktails and dinner, accompanied by lovely selections from the Royal Canadian Artillery Woodwind Quintet. Many thanks to these excellent musicians for their service.

Anthony Tucker-Jones, a brilliant military historian and author of Churchill: Master and Commander, as well as dozens of books and hundreds of articles, was the highlight of the evening. He revealed incidents in Churchill’s life – his personal risk-taking and “hands-on” style – that made him ideally suited for his role as wartime leader and conversely, contributed to his defeat in the election of July 1945.

Our Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Robert Chaffee, kept the evening on track and on schedule, through the singing of Oh Canada and God Save the King by Gary Dewar, the blessing of the meal by Janice Stefancik, the toasts, and general remarks. It was a great evening. We are grateful for the support and service we received from the management and staff of the University Club. Our photographer and videographer, Mr. Grant Cree recorded the event for posterity. You can see more of his photos and a video of the presentation HERE.

Thanks are due to our banquet planning committee for their inspired and hard work on this event. Next year’s committee will benefit from this year’s experience, triumphs and stumbles alike, in planning a perfectly smashing 58th Annual Memorial Banquet. We hope to see you there.

 

 

56th Annual Memorial Banquet 2022

After a two-year pandemic-related hiatus, the Society was pleased to host a sold-out banquet on June 21 at the University Club at the University of Alberta.

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It was a pleasure to host our honorary patron, Her Honour, the Honourable Salma Lakhani, AOE BSc, LLD (hon), and other distinguished guests at our Churchill Banquet.  

Held on the summer solstice and keeping with the Society's decades-long banquet tradition and aims, one hundred and fifty participants enjoyed a magnificent dinner in Churchillian fashion.

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Lieutenant General (Retired) Paul Wynnyk, CMM, MSM, CD, was a compelling keynote speaker on Russia’s war against Ukraine, sharing his personal and unique experience and perspective.

Early in his speech, he stated, "Zelensky, like Churchill, has not—in the face of odds that have been compared to David and Goliath—accepted any form of defeatism, nor any reasonable terms that would compromise the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

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Wynnyk continued, "Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s official biographer, wrote that ‘it was Churchill’s own opposition to all forms of defeatism that marked out the first six months of his warm premiership and established the nature and pattern of his war leadership.'"

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Wynnyk served as Commander of the Canadian Army from 2016 to 2018. In July, he was named Vice Chief of the Defence Staff. He retired in July 2019.