Next Meeting:  Gary Cox
" Why Did Sartre Write Fiction?"
The author of ‘The Sartre Dictionary’
explores why Sartre wrote stories, novels
and plays as well as theoretical works
and biographies.’

Wednesday July 2nd 7.30 pm, Community Centre, Berrow Road,  Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset  

The Richard Locke Memorial Lecture

This lecture was instituted to mark the life of one who has been called, with some justification, Burnham’s greatest son. He was born at Pillsmouth Farm, the site of the present Burnham Holiday Village, on June 6^th 1737. He was one of seven children, three of whom, died in childbirth. He was a distant relative of John Locke, the English empiricist philosopher who was born some twenty miles away at Wrington.

Richard described himself as ‘of yeoman stock….a self-taught individual of inferior ability but possessed of a laborious turn of mind’. Needless to say, he was being unduly modest about his achievements for, during his lifetime of 76 years, he became a qualified land surveyor and a pioneer agriculturalist as well as being the founder of the Burnham Society, which is of course, the principal reason for our interest in him.

The Burnham Society which Locke founded in 1772 debated theological and philosophical issues of the day and published extracts from its proceedings. Its meetings attracted distinguished speakers from as far afield as Bath, Oxford and London. The Society had links with the Swedenborgians and other religious sects and John Wesley spoke to at least one of their meetings. The Society flourished for some years after Locke’s death in 1806. 

The Richard Locke Memorial Lecture is held annually in June. A distinguished philosopher is invited to deliver a public lecture on a topic of his/her choice and admission is free. This is held at the Princess Theatre, Princess Street in Burnham. There is no need to book, just turn up.