More than 150 people crowded into Romsey Town Hall in Hampshire last night for an event to celebrate the achievements of Thomas and Lucy Atkinson. Guests of honour included the Ambassador of Kazakhstan, HE Erlan Idrissov, the mayor of Romsey, Mr John Parker and Hampshire High Sheriff, the Hon. Mrs Mary Montagu-Scott. The meeting opened up with three songs from the Romsey Voices choir before Thomas and Lucy’s great, great great grandson Steve Brown introduced the ambassador, who spoke warmly about the Atkinsons and the contribution they had made to both Kazakh and British history.

This was followed by a talk by me about the Atkinsons’ travels in Kazakhstan and then a talk from Steve about the history and geography of Kazakhstan. Finally, Steve’s wife, Gill spoke about the trip the Atkinson descendants made to Kazakhstan last summer to visit the birthplace of their ancestor Alatau Tamchiboulac Atkinson at Kapal in November 1848.

Afterwards guests were treated to a wonderful selection of Kazakh foods and pastries.

I have now given more than 20 talks about the Atkinsons and this was definitely the biggest one so far. Many thanks to everyone who attended and to Steve and Gill for organising it so brilliantly.