Who are they? - TrustNews Summer 1986
Two more members of the Council of the Trust are featured below.
Jeffrey Smith
A Founder Member of the Trust, Jeffrey can remember the first meeting in 1957 when the Trust was faced with a so-called slum clearance programme of over 500 old houses in the centre of Winchester, including listed buildings. In those days the feeling was one of despair and frustration, but now in a changed climate it one of achievement and optimism.
Jeffrey served during the War in the Far East, and helped to construct an air strip on an island occupied mainly by land crabs. A Chartered Surveyor by profession, one time Mayor of Winchester, and currently Vice-Chairman of the Trust. His hobbies are conservation, fine art and gardening.
George Swift
George qualified in Medicine in 1940 after studying at Magdalen College, Oxford and the Middlesex Hospital. In 1941 he joined the R.A.M.C. and in 1945 was surprised to find himself in temporary command of the British Military Hospital, Lahore, at the princely salary of 52/6d. a day (£2.62 in new currency). Here he discovered he liked administration and getting people to do things his way without being too offensive.
In 1946 he started 30 years as a partner in a Winchester Practice. He was on the Foundation Council of the College of General Practitioners and subsequently was for three years Chairman of Council of what was by then a Royal College. For 12 years he was part time Regional Adviser in Postgraduate Education for General Practice for Southampton University and the Wessex Regional Hospital Board.
In 1983 he was coerced by Gill Graham to become Hon. Manager of the Heritage Centre. Here he would have achieved nothing without the help of an all too small group of volunteer stewards. Currently engaged in looking for more stewards and a successor to himself.