Changes I Recall during My First 10 Years
My year as President saw the completion of the first 10 years of my Rotary membership. Looking back, it is amazing the number of changes that occurred in the Club during those 10 years. So many of the original members and members of the committee had either retired or several, like Gordon Warren and Canon Courthope, had died. There were tremendous changes. Wardrop never became President because he moved and, in his place, we got Bob Archer who, as I have already said, was from the Electricity Board. He never became President, as he moved, but he became Secretary for a number of years. Bob was a lovely character and did a tremendous amount of work. It was fortunate for me that he stayed on in my year when I asked him
Our Headmaster Baker had gone and Val May, who followed him, continued to be a member for many years. When he went, John Fowler came. Val loved France and, when he left us, he went to live there. When we started the contact Club, he was in his element. He used to give the speeches in French and English during what became very long evenings! I think he is still alive. He is just little older than I and it is not all that many years since Val came to see us. He is now living in Cheltenham. We have the usual Christmas card and letter from him, but I have not heard from him lately.
Quite a number were excellent members, but were not there long enough to become President. We lost Jack Bassett, our tobacconist, who had a shop in Corbets Tey Road. He was a very well-known character and his family went to live in Sussex. For a long time we had Alec Gardner, who was a fine Rotarian, but who was not with us long enough to become President. He took over Jack Bassett’s shop, but eventually gave it up; he still lives in Holden Way.
The Member who Became Bishop of Burnley
The Canon was replaced by Rev. Holden for a time. Later on, we had Dick Watson at St. Andrew’s; Harry Wilson brought him along and introduced him to us. We became very fond of Dick and his wife. After some years, he became the Bishop of Burnley. I drove up to Burnley Cathedral when he was inaugurated. I remember there was a terrible snow storm while driving
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