The next President was Bill Occomore, who was one of the most outstanding Rotarians. He took part in everything and served on all committees. He was a great help with all youth work, as he was Headmaster of Suttons Primary School at the time. Bill was with us many years until he retired. He took part for many years on the council and eventually, when he retired, took holy orders. He never left the Club and became curate of St. Michael’s in Gidea Park. Right up to recent times, we always had Bill’s prayer at the beginning of a meeting. He used to turn up with a new prayer every month. The one we had for so long after he died was the last one he gave us. I think that has now changed. His wife Doris, who was an Inner Wheeler, unfortunately had heart trouble and was a semi-invalid for a long time, but she lived a lot longer than Bill in the end. Bill was buried at the Crematorium here, and there was a large crowd of us at his funeral.


Doug Westrop was our next President. He had already been in the Club for a long time when he became Headmaster at Gaynes School. He had been in the Gray’s Rotary Club and had been President there. Not long after, he became President here. He was an excellent President and did a tremendous lot; we relied on him for a great deal. He was Secretary for practically everything. He was also very good at keeping people informed of what was going on regarding illnesses and the like. He was such a nice chap.


Doug’s hobby was printing and he took on the task of printing our handbook; he did this for years for Probus as well. His wife Jane was also very nice. Their house was beautiful. He was interested in pottery and he had a wonderful collection of Suffolk pottery. One was always scared when visiting in case something became broken. Jane was unfortunately taken ill and he stopped coming to Club meetings to nurse her. Jane was ill for about five years; he remained a member and we had a report on her welfare each week. We kept in touch until she had to go into a nursing home in Corbets Tey where she died. Doug had to go into a nursing home eventually and he went to live near his son and daughter towards the end. I was the one to ‘phone to him every month. We would take it in turns to ‘phone each other and he was very close to his family who looked after him very well. Luckily he was only bedridden for a short while before he died. Many members will remember Doug well.


The next President was Val May, another Headmaster from Hornchurch Grammar School. He was also very keen on France and our contact Club. He used to love speaking French, so, whenever we went there, Val was in his


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