Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL)

I was invited to attend and participate in the Eastern Himalayan Forum in Guwahati on 1 and 2 November. Approximately 150 delegates from 25 countries took part in the forum to share their knowledge and expertise in landscape scale conservation, both of natural and cultural capital. 

The final event in our series celebrating the UK-India Year of Culture and 70 years of Indian independence, takes place on Thursday 3 August, with a talk from Abhaey Singh, aimed at demystifying India.

On a scorching Saturday, with weather more akin to Mumbai than Mayfair, the London clubhouse played host to the annual Summer Ball, this time themed to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence. 

To celebrate ROSL’s longstanding connection with the Caine Prize, members this year have a chance to have their say on who should win the inaugural ROSL Readers’ Award.

In the August 1937 edition of Overseas, member Freda Dalley gives her account of a breakdown in the middle of the dense Indian jungle. 

In the June 1985 edition of Overseas, then-Vice-Chairman Godfrey Talbot LVO OBE, penned an article for the journal in which he recollected his relationship with our Patron, HM The Queen, over the years. It's heartening to see that, some 34 years later, many of his opinions on her still ring true today. 

In a 1999 edition of Overseas, Stanley Martin looks back at the Queen who won the heart's of a generation of British people with her rainy ride in the Coronation procession of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. 

Now Spring has finally sprung, members can start looking forward to spending many happy hours in the ROSL garden as the weather begins to improve. One of the first events of the year which will see us step outside is the Big Lunch, held at the clubhouse on Sunday 15 April. 

Happy Diwali to all our Hindu, Sikh and Jain members. The festival that symbolises joy, love, reflection, resolution, forgiveness, light and knowledge; and represents the victory of good over evil, and light over darkness. Find out how you can join in the celebration of this year's Festival of Lights as Diwali turns our grey November London into something altogether more colourful. 

We all have reason to give thanks for the numerous ways in which our lives are enriched when we learn from others. Through exchanging ideas, and seeing life from other perspectives, we grow in understanding and work more collaboratively towards a common future. There is a very special value in the insights we gain through the Commonwealth connection; shared inheritances help us overcome difference so that diversity is a cause for celebration rather than division. 

In a new education project, the ROSL Golden Jubilee Trust (GJT) and the Business Council for Africa (BCA) will enable over 80 youngsters to experience Boitumelo Mo Nageng (Joy in the Wild), which engages with vulnerable youth in Botswana to unlock their potential. Margaret Adrian-Vallance reports. 

Last night, the Kenya Society hosted at reception at ROSL to welcome Kenya’s new High Commissioner to the UK, H.E Manoah Esipisu. 

Following auditions held at The Piano in Christchurch on 17 and 18 November, the Korimako Piano Trio have been selected to take up the Pettman/ROSL Scholarship for a New Zealand Chamber Ensemble in 2018. 

ROSL’s 2017 battlefield tour, ‘From the Somme to Cambrai: British and Dominion forces’, is nearly sold out, so book now to avoid disappointment. 

With much of the world now under lockdown, we speak to members from all corners of the globe to find out how life has changed for them under quarantine. 

It is now less than five months until the XXI Commonwealth Games begin on the Gold Coast of Australia, on Wednesday 4 April 2018. The fifth time Australia has hosted the games, the multi-sport event has been held every four years since 1930, when it was known as the British Empire Games. 

As well as the extensive event programme organised by staff at ROSL, from the House of Lords Afternoon Tea, to Rush Hour concerts, art exhibitions, and wine tastings, a small army of members also provide a huge variety of social events for the rest of the membership to enjoy. 

ROSL Branch Secretary Ron Williamson reports on a recent visit to Government House, Melbourne. 

To celebrate the launch of the new ROSL Calgary Branch, Chair Madeleine King gives us the skinny on her hometown. 

Sisters and ROSL members - Poonam and Rohina Jaiswal tell us about their Delhi.

Today New Zealanders are celebrating Waitangi Day, which commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, the nation's founding document. 

Following the horrific shootings last week in Christchurch, New Zealanders in London will be coming together this evening in Trafalgar Square to hold a vigil from 6pm. 

NZTrio, made up of Annual Music Competition alumni Amalia Hall violin, Ashley Brown cello, and Somi Kim piano will be livestreaming their Dramatic Skies 1: Strauss from Auckland on Sunday 18 April at 5pm local time. 

Last night saw the final clubhouse-based concert of this year's Annual Music Competition, in which the most outstanding overseas musicians from the previous weeks' Section Finals were invited back to compete for the Overseas Award. 

What does the Commonwealth mean to you? Ask that question amongst ROSL’s membership and you’re likely to receive a huge variety of answers, but all with a common thread running through them; the shared language, values, interests, history, and purpose. Those commonalities have held the organisation together since its inception. To mark the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) taking place in London and Windsor in April, the upcoming issue of Overseas aims to look at the many facets of this vast organisation and highlight some of the lesser known areas in which it works. 

Last night, members and Friends of ROSL ARTS gathered in the beautiful balmy weather of the ROSL garden for a party that celebrates the work of the arts team in supporting young musicians, visual artists and writers from around the Commonwealth. 

The celebrated interior designer talks to Eleanor Rucker Thompson about growing up in the time of partition, her approach to restoration work and why she considers it her responsibility to support less privileged women.

Read HM The Queen's message to citizens of the 53-nation Commonwealth as we mark the 70th anniversary of the London Declaration.