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History
ROTARY CLUB OF MANCHESTER RI 66 RIBI 4 DISTRICT 1050
The Manchester Club was formed as a result of the work of Bostonian
Harvey Wheeler, of the Initial Towel Company and his London office
associate, Canadian, Arthur Bigelow. After they had successfully started
the London Club in August 1911, they were asked by Chicago to turn their
attention to Manchester. Paul Harris especially had felt it important to
spread the idea of Rotary through Britain, and with other clubs being
started by
Stuart
Morrow, Manchester was an obvious next choice. The Initial Towel
Company had a branch in Manchester where E Sayer Smith ran a subsidiary,
the 'Initial Carrier Company', supplying carrier tricycles.
On September 26, 1911, an initial meeting was held at the Mosley
hotel in the city with 14 people present including E Sayer Smith, and
H.N. Bolton from the London Club. Once they all realised the
opportunities which the new club could offer, they decided to go ahead
with the founding of a Rotary club and an inaugural dinner was held at
the Albion Hotel in Piccadilly on December 14,1911.
The dinner menu was signed by 14 people, 8 of whom had already joined
the club led by a committee presided over by John Masters, a dental
surgeon. The influence of John Masters and E Sayer Smith can be seen in
the list of members which included a 'Dental Material Manufacturer' and
an 'Office Towel Service' proprietor and the owner of a laundry. At this
time, the club met monthly and it continued to grow in the following
years with members often giving talks about their business as the main
item on the agenda. Thus, in January 1913, the month in which
Peter Thomasson,
who would
become the youngest RIBI president, attended his first Rotary meeting,
J.T. Warren, one of the founder members, gave a talk on 'Underwood
Typewriters'.
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At least with good 7 course dinners, the members were eating well.
However, after a short time, the name of E Sayer Smith
appears only as an Honorary Member with an address in London.
A little while later in May
1913, the club was chartered by the International Association of Rotary
Clubs in America, at the same time as the clubs in Belfast, Dublin and
Edinburgh. In the 'interim' period, Manchester started its own club
newsletter, probably the first in Britain, and in
1913 sent
delegates to attend the International Convention in Buffalo.
Before the Great War began, Manchester started its first daughter club,
in Sheffield.
With the onset of war, the Manchester Club became much
involved in community relief work; it printed in full in its newsletter,
the 'Rotary Code of Ethics' adopted by the 1915
Convention in San Francisco. The first principle was 'To
consider my vocation worthy, and as affording me distinct opportunity to
serve society.' This move from pure boosting was enthusiastically
pursued by Mancunians.
Peter Thomasson, who had joined the club in 1913, commented in an
interview in 1961 that "we never liked the first American motto 'He
profits most who serves best'". and it was through his and other
members' influence that Manchester developed its vocational and
community work. In fact, the Manchester Club has long believed that the
emphasis on Vocational Service in Rotary owes much to the original
thinking of Thomasson.
Basil Lewis
Rotary Global History Fellowship 11 July 2003
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