It certainly was not, as Alan continued with a description of London life in the 1880s, a city of great contrasts, with immense wealth at one end of the scale and utter poverty at the other. He then described, with all of their gory details, the murders of the six prostitutes by Jack the Ripper which occurred between August and November 1888.

All sited within a square mile of Whitechapel High Street in the east end of the city. One fact emphasised by the speaker was that there had appeared to be no struggle before the victims were killed and no one saw or heard anything of the incidents.

Alan concluded with details of his four main suspects for the murders, although of course no one was ever charged with the crimes and many other names have been suggested over the years.

Our remaining speakers for 2008 will be on September 25, Tony Leonard, describing his role as Rother District Council Director of Services; on October 23, John Dowling, Deputy Editor of the Bexhill Observer will relate the story of Bexhill during World War 11 and finally on November 27 Martin Lloyd from Canterbury will talk on Passports, Assassins and Traitors.

We are still open for new members, so all of you retired or semi-retired businessmen with two hours to spare once a month come along to the Bexhill Conservative Club on the fourth Thursday of each month at 10am for a coffee, some socialising and listen to a range of first class speakers.

Our Christmas lunch will be at the Cooden Beach Golf Club on December 18. Look out for further details in the monthly newsletter.