Percy French Society Chairman’s Report 2025 

After another successful and enjoyable year, I again applaud the contribution of each member of the committee.     As you will appreciate, it’s the hard work behind the scenes which ensures the smooth running of the Society and I extend my gratitude to the members of our committee, Pauline, Catherine, Ronnie, John, Newenham, Peter and to our President, Berrie, who although not so active as before still offers sage advice.  Despite ever increasing expenses the committee decided to maintain, for this year,  the annual subscriptions to the current £30 single and £35 double. 

In September this year we donated a 1st prize of £200 and 2[nd] prize of £100 for paintings in the style of Percy French, submitted to the Ulster Watercolour Society exhibition held in Portview Art Centre.    During the exhibition, with material borrowed from the North Down Museum and our own P F Society, a selection of Percy French memorabelia was displayed.    This sparked quite a lot of interest in the general public attending the event and was useful publicity for the PF Society.  It is hoped that one of the artists from the UWS will come to one of our lunches and demonstrate landscape painting relating to the style of Percy French. 

The P F Society also gave a donation of £200 to the UWS, to help with the running costs of the exhibition and perhaps we can engage in a similar process next year when we will have the opportunity to publicize it more effectively to the P F Society membership 

Sadly I have to announce that Pauline Cassells the Social Secretary has decided to retire from the committee.     Pauline has been the driving force behind our lunches  and the Society owes her a huge debt of gratitude for the many years of enjoyment which her skilled organization in booking the catering arrangements and also the room for our monthly committee meetings. 

Once again, we thank our loyal band of Society Members and Friends who faithfully support  the Society at our various events , which for the most part will continue as lunchtime meetings.    We had a varied range of entertainments during the year and much thanks to Ronnie for never failing to engage artists of such high quality.    E.g. John Porter from Ballymoney gave us his special treatment of songs and craic.      For the Saint Patrick celebration we had Donard and Christine McClean  who delivered some truly authentic traditional Irish songs and music.    Our special May event  was a tribute to Wilfie and Isobel Crowe, when we were entertained by the accordians of the Rea Brothers as well as Olive Melville with Billy Cairns at the piano    Another memorable midsummer evening event was entertainment by Hilary O’Neill with her songs and harp accompaniment.      We look forward to another enjoyable year of social events, starting with the Christmas lunch on 16[th] December 2025 at Helen’s Bay Golf Club. 

Norman Cairns (Chairman) 



Page 2