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The first ‘Rotary Club’ was founded by an
American lawyer Paul P. Harris, in Chicago in February 1905. A newcomer to
Chicago he wanted two things very badly - more friends and more business,
and he hit on an idea which gave him both. He formed a small circle of
similarly minded men, but took care to ensure that they all had different
businesses so that there was no conflict of interest. This was the origin of
the classification system. They met over the lunch hour one day a week
rotating around each others offices, but soon the circle became too large
for office meetings and regular lunches were substituted, but retaining the
name ‘Rotary Club’.
 How
do we know all this? Well, the foregoing account was given to us by Paul
Harris himself on one of his visits to our club, for he had a special
interest in Edinburgh as his wife whom he called ‘Scotch Lassie Jean’
was born and brought up here.
The San Francisco Club followed the
Chicago one and a member of that club,
Stuart Morrow,
returned to Ireland and founded clubs in Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Liverpool and Birmingham. The Rotary Club of
Edinburgh
first met on the 23rd of September 1912. Stuart Morrow was our first
secretary, and his successor was to have a profound effect on the Rotary
movement.
Thomas Stephenson, known as Doctor Tom,
took stock of Rotary and considered that the commercial advantages offered
by being a Rotarian were not only a poor objective in themselves, but could
well alienate new Rotarians. He, along with other office bearers in the
club, took every opportunity to stress this to other clubs and he was
instrumental in evolving the idea of ‘service not self’. Soon, the
commercial aspect of fellowship was abolished and replaced with the
philosophy of service to the community. Dr Tom was also responsible for
starting our Club bulletin in 1914 and the predecessor to the Rotary
magazine in 1915.
Since then, Edinburgh has played an
important part in Rotary in the UK, setting up in 1913 the British
Association of Rotary Clubs and administering this until 1920. In 1921 the
Edinburgh Club hosted a
World Convention of Rotarians which
included 1100 Americans.
The Edinburgh Club is among the biggest in
Britain with over 150 members broadly from business, the professions, civil
service, the clergy and the police.
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Edinburgh is celebrating the 90th Anniversary
on the 23rd September 2002 and, in addition to a Formal Dinner and Church
Service, a special Presentation Envelope is being prepared.
A production of 500 Covers, showing views of
Edinburgh Castle, and bearing a full set of the Queen's Jubilee Stamps
(franked for the 23rd September) will be available at £10 (including
postage & packing) for Overseas collectors. A small number will be signed
by our Honorary member, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and will be available at
£25 (including postage & packing).
All enquiries to Derek Pape, 15 Kirk Park,
Edinburgh EH16 6HZ. Cheques to The Rotary Club of Edinburgh.
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