7 August 2013 - President and Interviewer go head to head

At today's meeting, President Roger Wyborn was obliged to undergo a searching interrogation by Chris Palmer.

Roger was born in Folkestone where he went to primary school, before moving on to Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, where he boarded from the age of eleven. His sporting achievements were mainly in rugby and hockey, although a lot of his spare time was also spent in the school's Combined Cadet Force. He left school with decent O levels, but did not remain to take his A levels. As to careers in 1964, he considered alternative opportunities as a Clerk to the Magistrates and the Merchant Navy, before he decided on a career in the Army.

After joining the Royal Artillery as a 17 year old soldier, he completed his basic training, but was initially unable to apply to become a Regular officer without having achieved A levels at school. However, that didn't stop our intrepid President as he went on to pass the Regular Commissions Board's 4 day selection tests and interviews, and he was eventually fortunate enough to be selected to go to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst at the age of 18.

Commissioned at age 20,  Roger embarked on his military career and served in Germany, the UK, including operational duties in Northern Ireland in the dark days of the 1970s. He was also selected to become an officer instructor at Sandhurst, in the rank of Captain. He served in the Ministry of Defence twice and has travelled on duty to Denmark, Cyprus, Canada and the USA.

Having enjoyed 30 years of military service, Roger then decided it was time to leave the Army in 1994, having reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Roger then became Bursar at The Beacon School in 1995, which had 198 pupils at that time and grew to over 400 pupils by the time he left. He also had a great deal of involvement with four major building works and one particularly significant rebuild. He retired in 2007.

He joined Rotary in 2008 and, as President for this Rotary year, he would like members of the club to re-examine what it that they put into Rotary and how it benefits others. He would also like the club as a whole to consider where it wishes to be in ten years' time.

His chosen charity for his term as President is Whizz-Kidz, whose aim is to provide adapted and motorised wheelchairs to disabled children. These are extremely expensive to provide but they often have a major impact on that child's quality of life.

Report by John Stephenson