Members of Women’s Institutes in Oxfordshire could usually sit and relax to hear their speakers, but not always.

One group found themselves listening to a talk on big game hunting when, suddenly, the head of a dead tiger appeared.

Members of Adderbury and Milton WI, near Banbury, meeting in Adderbury village hall in 1966, were taken on a ‘tour’ of Indian tea plantations, via a series of coloured slides.

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Major Ronald Duncan, a former tea planter, illustrated his talk with pictures of snakes, leopards and crocodiles, and explained how to stalk a man- or woman-eating tiger.

In Picture 1, we see members admiring the head of the tiger which Major Duncan shot in 1948 after it killed three people and many cattle during eight months of savagery.

Left to right are Mrs M Brown, Mrs F Parry, Mrs M Armitt, Mrs M Jeffcote, Miss A Neal and Mrs C Moore.

Picture 2 was taken at Matthew Arnold School at Cumnor in 1972 at a demonstration evening to show WI members crafts they might not have tried. Margaret Bruce attracted much interest with her batiks.

Members of Freeland WI, near Witney, celebrated their golden jubilee in 1969 and are seen in Picture 3 around the anniversary cake.

The guest of honour was county WI chairman Mrs J Illingworth, seated in the centre.

A cake was also the centrepiece of WI diamond jubilee celebrations at Eynsham, near Witney, in 1983. Margaret Hedges made the cake and is seen cutting it in Picture 4.

Members enjoyed a three-course dinner served by local Girl Guides and presented a wrought iron pedestal to the village health centre. John Hedges entertained everyone with jokes and magic.

The move to decimal coinage and metric weights held no fears for WI members. Honor Long, of Ducklington Lane, Witney, created the drying-up cloth in Picture 5 in 1969.

It contained all the information members needed to cope with the changeover. More than 6,000 of the linen cloths, covered in metric tables and decimal conversions, were sold.

In Picture 6, we see WI members with their banners after their 80th anniversary service at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford in 1999.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

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