members. Most of the professional people had been President at that time. So many of the businesses had changed hands, but most of them had brought along the person who had taken over the business. For instance, the electrical man had gone and he had introduced the tobacconist, Jack Bassett, and Alec Gardner took over his business. He was a fine Rotarian, but not there long enough to become President.
George Fleury came in and, when we lost Lines, he took his position. The first Secretary was Gordon Warren . He was ill with cancer and died in hospital. We also had Bob Archer. He was the electrical representative.
RIBI Conference in Albert Hall
There were quite a number of others. Most of them became President later. I took over in June and the RIBI Conference was to be held in London that Autumn. Dr. Patterson, Laura, Jean and I stayed in a hotel for the period of the conference. It was registered in the Albert Hall. They took over the Albert Hall for the first part of the Conference. The first event was a Rotary pageant where all the Clubs were represented and they all marched around with banners. It was followed by a big pageant arranged by Ralph Reader. It was brilliant and well attended. The next morning was the first business session and we were looking forward to hearing from Anthony Eden who was then Foreign Secretary. Unfortunately, owing to some crisis, he was unable to come!
We then got only a junior minister talking about foreign affairs, but it was a very good conference. The top table always seem to talk too much, blowing their own trumpets. That was always the fault of the RIBI conferences.
In the afternoon there were business sessions in the various halls. Central Hall Westminster was one that I went to. We had the Presidents of the various Clubs attending. The ladies had a fashion show and we went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening session at the Albert Hall by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with several well known soloists.
During the Sunday morning we attended a church service and there were no other meetings on the Sunday. On Monday morning we were back at the Albert Hall. The speakers were the President of the RIBI, Andrew Taylor, and the American Ambassador. In the afternoon we had more business sessions. In the evening there was a social session at the Empress Hall; this
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