In 1937 Paul Harris made a special visit to Britain which he called A POST CONVENTION TOUR OF THE ISLANDS OF THE BRITISH SEAS following the ending of the Convention in Nice.  One of the islands was the Isle of Man.  This is an account of that visit.
 

On July 10, 1937, Paul Harris left Liverpool on the morning boat to the Isle of Man with Will Nixon of the Manchester Club.  On arrival in Douglas, Isle of Man, Paul Harris was amused when Nixon rushed off ashore with their luggage, completely missing "the two middle-aged Rotarians wearing roses in their button holes" who were waiting by the gang-plank to greet them! 

Paul Harris' four day visit to the Isle of Man had been meticulously planned by Will Nixon and Fred Gray.  Accommodation for their visitor was reserved at the Castle Mona Hotel, formerly the residence of the Duke of Atholl, the last Lord of Man, and there, several Rotarians from the welcoming delegation led by  Commander A J Parkes OBE  JP, President of the Douglas Club, joined Nixon and Harris for lunch.  Immediately the meal was over, Nixon rushed off to catch the afternoon boat back to the mainland. 

Paul Harris was always interested in literary figures, their homes and the places in which their works were set.  Here on the Isle of Man, he set out on his first afternoon to follow the trail of the Manx novelist Hall Caine, starting with his grave, a lonely spot far up on the hillsides.  It was inscribed:

'To the memory of Hall Caine, CH KBE, Freeman of Douglas, Manx novelist Born 14th of May 1855   Died 31st of August 1931 Slumbering in the deep solitude of the hills he loved so well.'

As Harris remarked, "His idiosyncrasy was to do his writing in bed, as Victor Hugo's was to do his standing up. What a pity that they did not compromise and both write sitting down."
 

The next day, Sunday July 11, Paul Harris attended an outdoor religious service in a meadow next to Kirk Bradden's 18th century church. These outdoor services are still held today but the congregation of over 10,000 amazed Harris, especially since most were young people. The preacher was the fiancé of the daughter of Commander Parkes and during the next few days, Parkes, the young preacher, and Harris were to meet frequently.

One evening when they attended a public dance, Harris was again struck by the size of the crowd swaying to and fro "on an acre of hardwood floor".  It was explained to him that many of these were holidaymakers from the Lancashire cotton mills, all of which traditionally closed down at the same time for 'Wakes Week'.   Another visit was to Castleton, the island's capital until 1869, and nearby Castle Rushen, variously the jail and the seat of the legislature.  It was also the site of an unusual one-hand clock presented by Queen Elizabeth I in 1597. 

He noted that 340 years later the clock still worked and "continues to travel without the slightest sign of gout, rheumatism, lumbago or whatsoever other ailments there may be which pester the lives of aged clocks."    In his diary, Paul Harris noted that the Manx people still had a firm belief that many fairies and witches were supposed to live near Ballalona Bridge.  "Tradition has it that they also lived in great numbers in the caves beneath Castle Rushen, but that these had been replaced by giants.  I didn't happen to see any of them", wrote Harris.

 

For his last evening on the island, the Douglas Club convened a special meeting at the Sefton Hotel on Tuesday July 13, at which their distinguished visitor spoke for nearly an hour about the development of Rotary world wide and his own  travels throughout the world.  Not for the first time in his speeches to British Rotary clubs, Paul Harris said that, when it was suggested that clubs should be established on this side of the ocean and thereby transform Rotary into an international movement, it was said that the people in Britain were too cold to accept anything so warm as Rotary.  But, said Harris, in his boyhood days, he was so curious to see the world on this side of the Atlantic, that he worked his way over on a cattle boat.  He had fallen in love with England and her peaceful countryside and had immersed himself in the great literary men, such as Dickens, Thackeray, Shakespeare and Milton. He had tramped from end to end of London.  From his experience  he knew that the doubters were wrong and so a club was started in London to sow the seed for gradual growth.  "Our slogan 'Service Without Self' (sic)  is expressive of Rotarian philosophy," the Mona's Herald reported him as saying, "and our doctrine is one of usefulness and friendliness and we believe Rotary has something to offer that is well worth while."  His comments were echoed by Commander Parkes who said that Rotary had made a big contribution towards the solution of social and international problems.  Commander Parkes went on to say that he had tried to picture the man who was strong enough to create a Movement which had spread throughout the world to 80 different countries with over 4,000 clubs and 178,000 members.   "I have thought of a man", said Parkes, "of intense honesty of purpose, a vigorous courage, and a depth of human sympathy which few of us possess. Since I have come in contact with the man himself, that picture has remained in fact."

This extra meeting on the Tuesday had been arranged because the club had previously booked Vice Admiral Sir Gordon Campbell as their guest speaker for their regular lunch meeting the following day.  Sir Gordon, who like Paul Harris, had never visited the Isle of Man before, amused his audience with a series of naval reminiscences and anecdotes. He went on in a more serious vein to talk about the need for Britain and the United States to work together to stop aggressive dictators. 

Paul Harris attended this lunch and listened to Sir Gordon's comments.  Before leaving, he spoke enthusiastically about the island. "There has never", he said, "been a greater disparity between expectation and realisation than in the case of this beautiful island.  Historically it is vastly interesting and, in men of letters and religion, had contributed much to mankind." He concluded by expressing the hope that he would have the opportunity to extend the good wishes of Manx people to their kinsfolk in America.  Leaving the meeting, he was then taken "under escort by many friends" to the boat for the mainland. Thus ended "four very full and happy days", he wrote.
 

History Fellow, Basil Lewis 4 July 2003