Author Archives: Backstreeter

Bionic Hearing

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As part of the Oxford Science Festival there have been a series of talks at the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School over the last few days.
Bionic Hearing
On Saturday evening we went to hear Professeur Ian Shipsey talk on ‘Bionic Hearing:The Science and the Experience’.

The most common cause of deafness is damage to the sensitive hairs of the inner ear (cochlea). For most people with hearing loss a hearing aid is the best and cheapest remedy and works by amplifying sound. For people with severe hearing loss, the cochlear implant or “bionic ear” developed in the late 1990s is the best approach. Over 200,000 people worldwide have regained their hearing using this device. An external microphone and digital sound processor transmit sound to an internal receiver that sends signals to 10 electrodes implanted into different points on the cochlear from high to low tones.

As one of the beneficiaries Professeur Ian Shipsey spoke movingly about regaining his hearing in 2002, after 12 years of deafness, and hearing his child’s voice for the first time. Professeur Shipsey is a Professeur of Physics but he hopes by doing these lectures on Cochlear Implants to reach others who can benefit from the procedure.

It was fascinating to hear sentences spoken, and music played, as he hears them with his implant.

Somme 100 marked

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Thanks to Colin for this updated report …
Somme Comments
On Friday, 01 July at 0700, the Mayor of Abingdon, Councillor Alice Badcock, led a small gathering of about fifteen souls, who met at the War Memorial on The Square, for a short act of remembrance in honour of those who fell at the battle of the Somme, which had begun one hundred years earlier, in 1916.

Almost two years after the start of the First World War, among the British infantry regiments fighting at the Somme was the local Royal Berkshire Regiment, in which a large number of men from Abingdon had enlisted. Some of those who fell at the Somme are remembered on the War Memorial including one Ock Street resident, who lost his life aged 22 on the first day of fighting.

Lined up on the west side of the memorial was a British Army Padre and five sergeant-majors from 3 Logistic Support Regiment, based at Dalton Barracks, near Abingdon. On the south side was the civic party comprising the Mayor, the chairman of Vale of White Horse District Council and a few other civic leaders. On the east side, stood two buglers from The Rifles and a few members of the public.

Shortly before 7am there was an Exhortation:
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Then followed The Last Post on the bugle, a two minutes silence, and a Reveille.

You can hear an audio recording on The Abingdon Taxi Sound Cloud.

The Mayor laid a wreath in the town colours of yellow and green, and the Padre followed on behalf of the Logistics 3rd Regiment, saluting towards the War Memorial as he stepped back.

The Mayor read the Kohima Epitaph:
‘When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.’

The short ceremony was concluded with a blessing from the Padre –
“God grant to the living, grace; to the departed, rest
to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth, and all people, peace and concord…”

By five minutes past seven, Abingdon once more went about its daily business.

Look down East St Helen Street and beyond

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Grief and War
This picture is taken from the County Hall roof looking down East St Helen Street, in Abingdon, on a summer evening, with St Helen’s Church at the far end.

Part of Look Down – a theme on City Daily Photos.

Not only the church rises to meet the sky: the poplars, like storm clouds, rise above the cumulus of trees, and chimneys stand like sentinels. Men from this street went to war and did not come back (Somme 100).