Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday 8 September 2025
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Duke Street Church
Categories No Categories
Paul Velluet, the Society’s President
(Photo by Robert Smith)
After the summer break, our monthly talks programme resumes on Monday 8 September. Our President, Paul Velluet, and our Chair, Dr Simon Targett, will be giving talks to mark the 50th anniversary of our founding as the Richmond Society’s Local History Section and our Society’s 40th anniversary as an organisation in its own right.
Paul Velluet was appointed RLHS’s President in 2017.
Born in East Sheen, brought up in Richmond and now living in St Margarets, Paul is one of our founder members. He joined what was then the Richmond Society’s Historical and Archaeological Section when it was set up in April 1975 and has delivered talks to us for more than 40 years.
Paul is an architect with particular expertise in the conservation aspects of projects involving historic buildings, a former assistant regional director for English Heritage (now Historic England), a local historian and a former Chairman of the Richmond Society. Paul continues to lead the Richmond Society’s highly successful annual summer season of heritage walks and has also introduced a programme of summer walks for the Richmond Local History Society.
Dr Simon Targett, the Society’s Chair
Dr Simon Targett was elected as the Society’s Chair in 2024. A former Financial Times journalist, he lives in St Margarets.
Simon, who has a PhD in History, has given talks to the Society on: Richmond and Mortlake’s part in the founding of America and the launching of the British Empire; Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister, and his connections with Richmond; and naval captain George Vancouver, who is buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s, Petersham.
Simon’s book, New World Inc: How English Merchants Founded America and Launched The British Empire, co-authored with American business writer John Butman, was published in 2018 by Atlantic Books. It tells the story of how England’s merchant adventurers founded America before the Pilgrims.