ON Sunday, February 15, 2015,members of the Stroud Local History Society met at the Old Town Hall for a Gala Afternoon to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Society.

We were welcomed by the chairman, Howard Beard, and were then treated to a slide show of newspaper cuttings and photographs, showing events and places in Stroud over the past 30 years.

This slide show, put together by Pauline Stevens and presented by Marion Hearfield, resulted in many reminiscences, and surprise at the changes to Stroud in a relatively short period of time.

There is a version of '30 years of Stroud 1984 to 2014' on the SLHS website: stroudlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/research/30-years

Following this, Marion described the various research projects being carried out by the Society and its members.

She encouraged members to embark on local history research and report their findings to the Society.

A photo quiz, by Pauline Stevens, of architectural features on buildings in Stroud was displayed and members were asked to identify these buildings.

It was surprising how little notice we take of the features of familiar buildings.

A celebration cake was cut by the immediate past chairman, Sue Harrison in the presence of two former chairmen, Clive Bircher and John Loosley, and we had tea and sandwiches.

Howard Beard thanked all the members who had made this Gala Afternoon a great success and hoped that the Society would flourish during the next 30 years.

Vesper Hymn from 1917

Many older Stroud people remember Jack Smith, for fifty years the organist at the Bedford Street church.

Some also know that he was the Smith of Smith & Lee, ironmongers in the High Street until the 1990s.

But until last October, nobody at all knew that he had written a Vesper Hymn in 1917, when being treated at a Cambridge Hospital during World War One.

His music manuscript was found in a scrapbook donated to Addenbrooke's Hospital last summer, ninety-seven years after he composed it.

The hospital choir performs a fundraising Christmas Concert every year and at the end of October one member decided to try and identify J S Smith of Stroud, and invite any surviving family to the concert.

Thanks to very fast footwork by members of Stroud Local History Society, Jack's grandson Michael was a guest of honour at the concert in Cambridge on December 15.

Members of the SLHS listened to the choir's moving performance of Jack's music at their February Gala.

The concert programme includes the story of Jack Smith's wartime experiences.

The full story is on the SLHS website: stroudlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/research/smith