Club history

Southend on Sea Rotary Club launched in 1920 and got its official charter in 1921. It sponsored several clubs in Essex such as Westcliff, Rochford, Leigh, Southend East and Southend Estuary, and pre-dates the Rotary district 1240 that now governs it and even Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland who govern district, and was the 32nd club in the country and first in the eastern counties.

    

We have a Brief History of 1920-1985 booklet by Jack Sorrell (typed by his retired secretary Audrey Paris free of charge), a Diamond Jubilee history booklet from 1981, a Coming of Age booklet from 1941, and most of the rest of our history is ascertainable from our archive of newsletters, although some of the history in the booklets was limited by loss of 14 years of minutes and newsletters by 1986.

    

The brief history booklet thanks notable Rotary, business and benefactor names of the past such as Raven, Beale, Edwards, Heddle, Steward, Sentance, Thomas, Ayshford, Davis and Byford.     

    

Our themes have always included the blind and youth. We think our first project was an industrial exhibition in Southend, the second was a day out for the blind of London, the third was emergency transport for keyworkers and the fourth was a carnival committee. 

    

Also, before women were allowed into Rotary, and before even Inner Wheel, which was launched for Rotarians’ wives, member’s wives supported activities through the Ladies Auxiliary.

Like all service clubs, we had to start technically as a private members club. This was based on names collected between 1917-19 by W Charles Day, Alderman W J Hockley, Rotarian Graves of Brighton and Canon F Dormer Pierce vicar of Brighton and former vicar of St Marys and St John Prittlewell. This was with a view to becoming a provisional Rotary club, which the British Association of Rotary Clubs approved in February 1920, leading to our inaugural meeting as a provisional Rotary club on 09/07/1920, addressed by J Bain Taylor president of London Rotary Club, followed by our foundation meeting at Boots Cafe on 07/09/1920, again addressed by J Bain Taylor and with interim chairman J S Body presiding. The founder members in attendance included household names like Body, Gordon Hopkins, Kynaston, Fisher, Garon and Raven. The full list was W J Hockley, S F Body, W C Day, H Ashtn Agar, D Munro, Dr L Gordon Hopkins, A H Allardyce, H V Kynaston, C Foster, W E Sherratt, G F Grover, G Dunlop Martin, F T Fisher, G Bone, J C Bruford, Revd E N Gowing, H A Boatman, W C Mellor, G F Bunker, F W Garon, P Raven, H J Young, J Bain Taylor as London president, W M Bull as guest and D P Boatman as associate. The other founding members were W H Wixley and J W Burrows. It is said there were 29 founder members. We know that George Bone was a grand superintendent of works in provincial lodge. One suspects he was not the only Rotarian on the square in those days. Sydney F Body was elected as president, F T Fisher as vice, C Foster as treasurer, W C Day as secretary. Elected to council were Dr L Gordon Hopkins, W J Hockley, Revd E N Gowing, G Dunlop Martin, Percy Raven and Mr C Mellor. 

It was decided to meet at Boots Cafe on Tuesdays 1pm from 05/10/1920. That first meeting was a business meeting and next week was our first speaker Dr L Gordon Hopkins. We moved to the Palace Hotel on 26/10/1920. In November 2020 we were told we had been affiliated to Rotary on 04/11/1920. Around this time we think our newsletter was launched, called the Widening Circle, which came out every couple of months or so, before settling down to quarterly by 1930.    

    

The Secretary General sent our membership certificate to charter us on 01/02/1921, by which time we had 73 members. On 28/06/1921 we recorded our first 'banner' or flag from another club, being New York. On  23/09/1921 the club decided to limit its radius to ‘5 miles from the technical schools’ – which is now Victoria Circus. Around the same time, they set up a Boys Welfare Committee. By then the joining fee was £2 and subs £3.

    

Our first AGM was on 03/01/1922 when F T Fisher was elected president and we had 11p in the bank. By March 2022 they put on a Rotary Industrial Exhibition at the Kursaal from 18-25/03/1922 which made £917, of which £400 went to Victoria Hospital. A win at golf led to what became known as the Morehouse Cup.    

    

Dr L Gordon Hopkins was elected president on 09/01/1923. Rev Dennis Cooper was elected chairman of Rotary district council 3 sub division E (Essex, Hertford & Middlesex), which was the first record we have of district. For the next 35 years the Southend Standard and Essex Weekly News attended meetings. There were sports chairmen for each of golf, tennis, croquet, bowls, swimming, motoring and harriers. The constitution would not allow it nowadays, but the club closed for summer holidays in August, although that stopped in 1923 when the club ran through the whole year with 52 weekly meetings. We had a Rotary tent at Country Cricket Week. We advertised for a secretary at £50pa, which was the equivalent of about £1,700pa in subs in today’s money – not many secretaries are paid these days. Secretary from 1923-1939 was Sydney H Imrie-Smith.

Obviously allegations that we are not a genuine Rotary club are unthinkable. But incredibly, in October 1923 we had a letter accusing us of not being a member of a district council. Presumably that was from the British Association of Rotary Clubs, and it could have just meant we had not elected a delegate. Certainly it would be surprising if we were not in district, as we appear to have chaired it in 1923, 1926, 1930 and 1931 and hosted it twice in its first ten years, and district could only have been launched because we existed. Anyway, we considered joining district 8 East Anglia. We moved our AGM to 29 February. W J Hockley was elected president for 1924-5.

The first recorded Ladies Night was 03/03/1924 with 178 in attendance. We established our board of past presidents on 13/03/1924. On 05/06/1924 it was noted we had joined district 8.

District conference was in Romford and moved to Southend in 1925. The second industrial exhibition had 51 exhibitors and 15,000 visitors, while the Standard newspaper gave away souvenir copies every day.    

    

District conference was held in Southend in March 1925 – whereas nowadays conference tends to be in far flung resorts. W H J Hixley was elected president for 1925-6. The club office was moved from the Palace Hotel to 98 Hamlet Court Rd in May 1925. 100 blind persons were entertained in June 1925. The five course 4/- lunch was replaced with a three course 2/6d lunch, but was a disaster, so they reverted within a month. Nowadays, we are lucky if we get a biscuit, and even dining clubs make do with a two course rubber chicken.

The general strike delayed the RIBI conference in March 1926. We launched a Rotary Volunteer Motor Service of 18 cars for police, hospitals and women getting to business. The first meeting of the court of past presidents was on 07/09/1926. Past president Wixley was appointed chairman of district 8 in December 1926. We organised the Eastern Counties Boy Scouts Jamboree in Priory Park.

   

In 1927 we launched Chelmsford club.

In 1928 we formed a hospital carnival committee and presented Clacton club with a table bell.

  

In 1929 our local affairs committee noted the growth in drunks tripping here on charabancs, and we put a Rotary lorry in the carnival. District 8 had grown to 18 clubs  

   

Sometime in the twenties we began a tradition of Christmas auctions, where gifts were sold for charity.

   

In 1930 our George Grover was elected district chairman, which he remained for two years. By now our newsletter was running to 44 pages, including of adverts and member directory. We manned three sideshows at Chalkwell park fete.

   

In 1931 on 19/05/1931 we funded tea, arranged a string quartet and provided marshalling for the Servers of the Blind League’s day trip for 1,200. On 03/11/1931 we bought 108 white sticks for the blind, of which 50 were presented in Southend, with tea and music laid on at Raven Cafe in conjunction with the Borough Home Visitor of the Blind. We also moved our club office back to the Palace. We switched from weekly 'programme' (agenda responsibilities) cards to monthly in December 1931.

   

In May 1932 Charlie Beale donated a new charity box to fine latecomers. In June 1932 we arranged a day trip for the blind from London with 1,340 passengers on 49 coaches, taken for a 14 mile boat trip on the Britannia and tea at Marine Parade cafes. On 02/11/1932 we presented a table bell to Brentwood club, which was launched by our daughter club Chelmsford with help from us and Grays - who we also helped launch. The Christmas auction raised £68.

   

In 1933 we hosted the 10th district conference, the second time in Southend. On 03/01/1933 there is a record of a large attendance at a Daughters Day, where members could invite wives and daughters, and even other people’s daughters. In September of 1933, 57 Rotarians and wives turned up to watch Noel Coward’s Cavalcade at the Strand Cinema - in what became Keddies.

   

We held our first combined Sons and Daughters Day in January 1934. On 03/07/1934 vice president James Heddle presented a carved oak lectern, made by local boys as hobby classes run by the boys welfare committee. Our first record of a club sign appeared for an enamelled version costing 30/-. By 01/07/1934 we had 75 members.

   

Other projects included workshops for the elderly which was taken over by social services, and Talking Newspapers for the blind. For many years until 2017 our club ran Kids Out for the district, the Big Day Out for disadvantaged kids.

   

From the 1930s until at least 2012 we sang grace. Over the decades we slipped from luncheon to matinee to evening.    

We twinned with Deventer club in 1946. 
 

Eventually, changes in the business world and lifestyles meant there was no point having two evening clubs in Southend, and in 2018 the club held a visioning session where it voted to modernise. However by June 2019 the majority said they still want an evening dining club so they transferred to Westcliff club. That left a core of experienced Rotarians with a background in projects, fundraising and recruitment, including past presidents who were our biggest recruiter and a past assistant governor with experience in trusteeship and turning around membership clubs. In 2019 they amended the bylaws and redesigned the club to revive it as a modern flexible family-friendly weekend non-dining club for homemakers, business, professionals, anyone of good repute looking to volunteer with minimum obstacles or pomp and ceremony. The weekend coffee club never took off so by 2020 we had ended up staying as a Tuesday evening club but with just tea and cake, now with 25 members. Then lockdown happened in March 2020, limiting fundraising and projects but our membership remains steady and rearing to go.