168
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Mr. Darling moved, with Mr. Price seconding, that Mr. J. Ross be
appointed Second Auditor to examine the Club's Accounts; this was
carried nem. con.
The Retiring President then delivered his Address on "Essex Bird
"Migration."
At the close of the Address, Mr. S. Hazzledine Warren proposed that a
hearty vote of thanks be accorded to the Retiring President for his valu-
able Address and that he be asked to allow it to be printed in the Club's
Journal. Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones seconded the motion, and desired
to associate himself with the mover's appreciative remarks. On being
put to the meeting, the motion was carried by acclamation.
Mr. Glegg thanked the meeting for its kind reception of his Address
and invited the new President to assume the chair. This Mr. Ramsbottom
did, and it being now nearly 5 o'clock, declared the meeting at an end.
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL,
Presented to the Annual Meeting, 28th March, 1936.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Club's year now closing has been saddened, to us as to all British
subjects, by the death of our beloved Sovereign, King George V., in
January last ; your Council expressed, in Addresses to His Majesty King
Edward VIII., to the widowed Queen Mary and to our Royal Patron,
H.R.H, the Duke of Connaught, our respectful and most sincere sympathy
in their and our great national loss, and the Club was favoured with gracious
replies from each of these Royal personages, that from our Patron being
especially cordial in tone.
The death of Mr. Stephen J. Barns has left us with a vivid sense of
personal loss. As our Librarian and a prominent member of the Council,
Mr. Barns' loss is a very real one ; his intimate knowledge of Essex history
and places was an unfailing store upon which to draw and which was
always freely at our disposal for the asking.
Mr. Crouch has been appointed to fill the vacant honorary Librarianship
in succession to Mr. Barns.
During the year, the Club has carried out, under Mr. Bull's supervision,
an interesting investigation of a small Early Iron Age Occupation-site
at Danbury which has yielded some valuable results.
The Forest Museum has been thoroughly overhauled and the exhibits
re-arranged during the year by the united labours of Mr. Ross and Mrs.
Hatley, to each of whom our grateful thanks are due ; within a few days
members will have an opportunity to inspect the work of reorganisation
carried out by them.
The work of the Stratford Museum has been carried on regularly, if
unostentatiously, during the past twelve months.
The task of transcribing the West Ham parish registers has been
steadily pursued by the small band of voluntary workers and is now
completed ; the transcript is contained in nine bound manuscript volumes
and covers the period from 1653 (when the earliest register starts) until