On 12 June 1995 Dr Michael Steed, the eminent political scientist, and Dr Brian Porter, a respected academic on international relations, chatted at a formal University of Kent dinner. They talked about the long history of Kent. They noted that in 597 its king, Ethelbert, had received the Roman mission led by Augustine. They agreed that it was a highly significant moment in the history of Kent and of England. It deserved a monument in Canterbury.  

That conversation laid the seed from which grew the tree of the Commemoration Society. 

A year on from the dinner, the Society held its inaugural meeting on 29 June 1996. The Society then launched its Ethelbert and Bertha project, which was to erect two bronze statues of King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha on Lady Wootton’s Green. 

So let us praise Michael Steed and Brian Porter for their conversation (was it over port?) in 1995!