A FUNDRAISING talk for the Pontypool Local History Society and Torfaen Museum Trust is being held at Torfaen Museum on Tuesday, September 3.

Local author and historian Chris Barber will be giving a talk at 2pm at the museum entitled ‘A Tribute to Gwent Historian and Artist, Fred Hando.’

Fred Hando was born in Newport, Gwent in 1888 the eldest of three sons of Miriam and Alfred Hando (deputy postmaster of Newport Post Office).

Mr Hando became a teacher, eventually becoming headmaster of Hatherleigh Road School in Newport and had strong associations with Summerhill Baptist Church.

However, Mr Hando’s first love – and ‘great’ hobby for which he was awarded an MBE in 1952, was his love and interest in the history of his native Monmouthshire.

Mr Hando travelled the county, the whole ancient area of Gwent, drawing and recording buildings, people, stories and legends.

He wrote 795 articles for the South Wales Argus and published seven books about the county and its history, all illustrated with his own sketches.

His book ‘Hando’s Gwent, Volume One’, was edited by Mr Barber and is being reproduced with Mr Barber’s permission every Saturday in the South Wales Argus.

In 1987, Chris Barber also a local historian and author, wrote Mr Hando’s biography and about his travels and sketches.

He said: “Fred Hando was a man ahead of his time – an artist historian with a personal mission to explore and record a land that he loved passionately.

“It was a lifetime’s work and Fred devoted all his spare time to tramping around his home county, recording his findings and sketching everything that caught his eye.”

Mr Hando passed away in February 1970.

This talk is a fundraiser for both Pontypool Local History Society and Torfaen Museum Trust, and all are welcome.

The charge is £3 – to include tea, coffee and Welsh cakes in the museum tearoom afterwards.

It is free for Pontypool Local History Society and Museum Trust members.