History

Sevenoaks Rotary Club history

The idea for a Rotary Club Sevenoaks came from two local businessmen, a builder Fred Woodhams and a local solicitor Barty Foskett. Other businessmen were contacted and by February 1933 there were sufficient members to hold a Charter meeting at Bligh’s Hotel (now The Oaks) in the High Street.

There were 93 prominent local people present including the then District Governor Harold Young, a member of the Canterbury Club. The sponsor, or “mother” club for Sevenoaks, was Tonbridge.

Foskett was elected the first president and committee meetings (community, international, club service, vocational) took place in the homes of members and always finished with a song, a musical tradition that continued for more than 70 years. It became the practice to sing prior to the weekly lunch then always held at Bligh’s Hotel.

The early days of the club were also the years of the great depression and Sevenoaks Rotary Club adopted three mining villages in Durham. Members provided food, blankets and money and raised money for the building of a community hall in the village of Hamsteels. Today (2022) it is still known as Sevenoaks Hall.

Every year a Ladies Night was held at the Wildernesse Club and the highlight was a good-natured stunt for “sending up” the President.

The club was busy during the war helping to organise the evacuation of children, setting up a YMCA centre, encouraging people to buy National Savings and supporting the great local appeals such as Warship Week. When Holland was cut off by the Nazis, Sevenoaks Rotary Club adopted the town of Dordrecht – a friendship link that continues to this day.

The club continued to help the community after the war, supplying an ambulance for Rockdale Old People’s Home, opening a Rotary shop staffed in relays by members and nominating local people to become Foundation Fellows. In 1950 Sevenoaks started a goodwill Christmas Tree Fund for which presents were donated for the less fortunate in the community.

In the 1960s an international link was established with the Rotary Club of Le Touquet in France and Witten in the Ruhr valley of Germany and a tripartite reunion held each year in May.

Sevenoaks Rotary Club established an Inner Wheel Club for wives of members, a successful Rotaract Club for boys and girls over the age of 18 and, as membership increased, laid the foundations for an evening Rotary Club called Amherst.

More than £100,000 has been raised for charities in Sevenoaks, Kent and around the world through an annual run in Knole Park and a charity dinner at Westerham Golf Club. Beneficiaries have included Age Concern, Kent Air Ambulance and Rockdale Old Peoples’ Home. We have despatched scores of shelter boxes to areas hit by volcanoes, earthquakes and great floods – each one tailored to the disaster.

Sevenoaks has provided money and help for the building of a well in South Africa and an extension to Spring House childrens’ centre in Sevenoaks.

Silver, golden and diamond jubilee dinners have been held and, in 2012 an 80^th anniversary event. Sadly by then membership was decreasing and with the average age approaching 80 it was decided to attempt to create a Satellite club.

In 2018, led by David Craik and Bob Ogley, the Satellite Club (consisting of about eight members) took over the reins with the hope of encouraging new and younger members. The older members became Past Rotarians, meeting once a month in Sevenoaks.