The West of Scotland Swiss Club

The West of Scotland Swiss Club is open to all who are interested in Scotland and Switzerland and in fostering links between them. We have a number of annual social events based on the Glasgow area. For more information contact one of the committee members below.

Note

Unfortunately it is proving difficult to find volunteers to occupy positions on the committee. In consequence the club is operating in an informal manner at the moment. Various events are still being organised and it is hoped to continue to publicise them on this website. Any persons interested in joining the committee should contact Yvonne Clark (president).

Temporary Committee

President	Yvonne Clark	yvonne1ch@yahoo.co.uk
Secretary	Vacancy
Acting Webmaster	Stephen Senn	helvetia@senns.demon.co.uk
Acting Treasurer	Hans Martin Senn	H.Senn@chem.gla.ac.uk

Swiss Benevolent Fund Scotland

WoSSC also has links to the Swiss Benevolent Fund Scotland. The Welfare Officer for the West of Scotland is Shula Spain-Gayer Swissclub9@googlemail.com

News of upcoming events

West of Scotland Swiss Club

West of Scotland Swiss Club is inviting to a fondue evening Saturday March 10th 2012

Venue: Hyndland Community Hall
24 Nova Drive
Glasgow G12 9PU

Meeting up for 4PM finishing for 8PM

Hans Martin Senn has very kindly agreed again to source cheese for the fondue. Please let Yvonne Clarke yvonne1ch@yahoo.co.uk know no later than 29th February to allow for the cheese to arrive!

Other

Franco-Ecossaise. The Franco-Scottish Society of Scotland has regular meetings in Glasgow which may be of interest to those with a connection to "La Suisse Romande". Regular meetings (usually the third Thursday of the month) are held at 19:30 in the Kelvinside Hillhead Church hall in Observatory Road. See Franco-Scottish

The Alliance Francaise Alliance Francaise de Glasgow shares a building (3 Park Circus, G3 6AX) with the Goethe Institute Goethe-Institut Glasgow and both together and separately they organises a number of cultural events including, occasionally, some with a Swiss Flavour.

News of recent events

25 June 2011. Lunch and AGM. We had a wonderful lunch hosted by Marie-Therese and Roger Sparkes followed by our AGM. Unfortunately we decided that with the imminent departure of Stephen and Victoria for Luxembourg and no volunteers forthcoming to replace them it would only be possible to run the club on an informal basis in future.

Saturday 26 March 2011, Annual fondue evening. Our usual annual Fondue and raclette evening was held in Hyndland Community Hall

4 December 2010 Christmas party A special showing at Sharmanka was followed by lunch at Kossachok.

11 November 2010. Lunchtime meeting plus concert We met at 12:00 at the Glasgow University cafe/restaurant 'in the Square'. The concert that followed was of violin and piano music by Schumann, Has Gal and Hummel.

1 August 2010. Members of the club met for a picnic lunch to celebrate Swiss National Day in the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens

22 May 2010. Twenty two club members and friends met in glorious sunshine at Balmaha for a picnic lunch followed by an ascent of Conic Hill. Despite the heat and the overpowering scent of the gorse (strangely reminiscent of coconut-oil), which was in full bloom, we made it to the top for fine views of Loch Lomond and Highland Boundary Fault. Afterwards we met for tea in Balmaha.

Conic Hill 2 Conic Hill 1

WoSSC & Highland Boundary Fault Climbing higher
Conic Hill 3

On the descent Gorse and Ben Lomond

19 April 2010 About 20 members of the Club were joined by the consul for a fascinating lecture on three Swiss tapestries by Patrica Watson, one of the curators at The Burrell Collection. (See Swiss Artefacts in Glasgow below). The Club had lunch together in the cafeteria afterwards.

27 February. Our annual fondue and raclette evening was held in the Hyndland Community Hall and was a great success. (Many thanks to Andy, William and Illona Clark whose very hard work made the evening so enjoyable.) We also had our AGM. The committee is unchanged

5 November 2009. We had lunch at the University on Thursday 5 November at the restaurant/cafe in the Square in what used to be the staff club. This was followed by a free concert with 'Sax Ecosse' playing works by Gershwin, Eddie McGuire and David Maslanka in the nearby University Concert Hall and a visit to the new exhibition at the Hunterian Art Gallery,

Wednesday 6 May 2009. Our AGM at Russell House followed by refreshments.

Saturday 7 March 2009 We had a very pleasant Fondue and Raclette evening at Hyndland Community Hall

Saturday 6 December 2008 Fourteen of us joined the Franco-Ecossaise for A Christmas party in Kelvinside Hillhead Church

Friday 7 November 2008. Lunch and a visit to the Hunterian museum and art gallery. in pursuit of objects with Swiss connections. (See below for discussion of Swiss artefacts in Scotland.)

16 October 2008, 18:45, 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow My dream came true! A Swiss pilot in the Spanish civil war Members of the WoSSC attended an interesting documentary about Ernest Schacht a Swiss volunteer pilot who fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, was honoured by Stalin in Moscow but later executed on his orders.

28 June 2008. Visit to the Falkirk Wheel with walk along the Union Canal towpath.

28 May 2008 Annual General Meeting. 19:00 at Russell House, 81 Hyndland Road G12 9JE

8 March 2008. We held our annual fondue and raclette evening evening in Hyndland Church Hall

22 January 2008 Members met in the cafe of the Burrell and after lunch had a tour of the collection

8 November 2007. Members met for a very pleasant lunch at the Kelvingrove museum. This was followed by a tour of Swiss artefacts.

Saturday 19 May 2007. Swiss Club walk to the Falls of Clyde. We had a lovely walk in unexpectedly dry conditions (rain was threatened but the sun came out) from New Lanark to the Falls of Clyde and back, including a fine sighting of peregrine falcons

Swiss artefacts in Glasgow

One way to organise a visit to our local museums is to go in search of objects from or in some way connected to Switzerland

In 2007, the West of Scotland Swiss Club did just that and, in case anyone else is interested, here are the 'search coordinates ' for a few of the things we found Kelvingrove Museum: In the 'Arms and Armour' section on 1st floor location KG 024 section: Conflict and Consequence there are several weapons amongst which halberd: (axe head one side and hook the other)ID no: E 1939.65.qu date: circa 1525 partisan: (twin axe blades) ID no: E.1939.65.pl dated circa 1500

There is also an impressive two handed sword from late 16th century ID no: E.1939.65.hx located nearby, catalogued as Swiss but been labelled as German! For horse lovers there is the tiniest carved white wood horse figure (which comes from the Seton Murray collection of 450 horse models). If you look very carefully you will find this in the area of the Study Centre KG 030 on the 1st floor ID no: E.1949.113.226. It must be one of the smallest items in this gigantic museum.Nearby in the jewellery case is a 19th century ivory booch carved in deep relief with three doves on a bird bath "probably made in Switzerland" ID no: E.1976.1.69

The Burrell Collection boasts some really splendid Swiss artefacts:There are several stained and painted glass panels made in Switzerland during the 16th and 17th centuries in room no 12 and also three designs for stained glass in the same room. Also in the room is a carved wood bookstand "probably Swiss in origin" There are some wonderful Swiss tapestries. In the 'Gothic Chapel (in area 7, next to corridor number 10) is an altar frontal showing 'Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Mary'. Two satirical Swiss tapestries , probably made in Basle, 'The Dishonest Miller' and 'A woman riding to Market' (this was our favourite one!) together with a small 'Last Supper' tapestry, can be seen in the 'Bridgwater Ceiling Room'. Another Swiss tapestry depicting 'The Flight into Egypt'unlabelled, can be seen from the doorway of the the 'Hutton Hall' one of the three rooms reconstructed from Sir William Burrell's home.The Hunterian Art Gallery has a small portrait of Sir William Hunter painted by George Michael Moser who was born and trained in Geneva. It is a small oval in a perspex box hanging under the Lange portrait of Constanze Mozart in a corner in the second bay of the gallery.

In the main hall of the Hunterian Museum in a line down the centre of the space behind the marble James Watt statue are two cases with Swiss connections. Andrew Henderson Bishop (1874-1957) was a collector of minerals and spent a lot of time in Switzerland and was responsible for introducing curling to the Swiss! There is also a case of artefacts collected by Frederick Eck who was born in Switzerland, probably in Vevey around 1806. He came as a young boy to London, later travelled extensively in South America collecting gemstones, fossils, coins and archaeological material. He married a Glasgwegian and in 1852 built a mansion, Hollybush House, near Dalrymple. His collection of over 3000 specimens was donated by his daughter to the museum on his death in 1896.

If anyone else comes across items with Swiss connections as they are out and about in the West of Scotland, please let us know so that they can be added to the website.

Swiss Influence in Glasgow

We knew that Lucerners liked to travel but this Smart Car is certainly far from home!

Scottish Swiss Links

Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Scotland

Centre for Swiss Cultural Studies University of Strathclyde.

Killin Cottage, Helensburgh Helensburgh guesthouse with a Swiss connection.

Welcome to the Isle of Arran Webpage maintained by WoSSC member Bruno Baumgartner


WoSSC & Highland Boundary Fault	Climbing higher

On the descent	Gorse and Ben Lomond