50th Charter Anniversary Dinner

The following was presented by Past President and PHF Dr Richard Liversidge

The Second World War interrupted the formation of the Rotary Club of Kimberley. The first exploratory meetings were held in late 1938 or early 1939 with Bloemfontein Rotary Club encouragement. Apparently some luncheons were held under the stewardship of Graham Eden at the Crescent Hotel before the war intervened.

In September 1950 another attempt was made by the Bloemfontein Rotary Club to start a Kimberley Rotary Club. The initial informal meeting was held at the Grand Hotel and a formal gathering of some 27 potential Rotarians was held at the Kimberley Club on 29th November 1950, followed by the inaugural meeting of this Club on 13th December 1950 at which 26 men were present. The only survivor of this group is Stewart Adams now in Helderberg Retirement Village, Somerset West.

The Rotary Charter was only granted to this Club on 20th August 1951 and the Charter Dinner was held in the Kimberley Club on the 24th November of the same year. Interestingly, their meetings were held in the same room that the Rotary Club now meets in for luncheon. About 1961, the Kimberley Club decided to ask Rotary to meet elsewhere because of the number of non-Kimberley Club persons that were breaking Club rules at our luncheons. From that time the luncheons were held at the Savoy Hotel until they returned to this venue.

It is worth noting with huge respect two long standing members of this Rotary Club who served in those times - namely Lawrie Shuttleworth who first served on the Committee in 1951 and Andrew le Riche who joined the Committee in 1971 - a year before I did.

Let me also say how pleased I am that this function is near a Thursday because in all my 29 years in Rotary we had Thursday luncheons and I am forgetful of your luncheons on a Monday.

I was asked to compare Rotary then and now and tell of the differences - if any. Differences there were many but perhaps most of all the similarities are the most important.

Paul Harris started Rotary because he was a newcomer and a lonely person living in the big city of Chicago. His first objective, as I understand it, was for fellowship and for me this is what Rotary is all about. There has always been talk of what Rotary should do; whether it is a luncheon club or a social or charity organization, but the fellowship has always provided the spirit and friendship that has made Rotary what it is and worthwhile. Paul Harris also had the wisdom to bring people from different vocations together that has added a special dimension to this fellowship that makes Rotary apart from many other service organizations. For me, especially as a biologist, when I first came to Kimberley in 1966 this mixing with people from strange occupations such as mining, money, clothing, insurance and many others was my greatest delight because it brought me to down to earth from the clouds of an occupation that was very much without professional associations and seemingly apart from the realities of everyday life. I believe too that this same fellowship with other vocations was appreciated by most Rotarians. It enhanced the comradeship.

But times have changed socially in all our lives, politics, the seriousness of money, the attitude towards charity and social responsibilities and dare I say it, the fun of life! For better and for worse things have changed.

My first Induction Dinner for the incoming President was a real gala affair that I shall never forget. It was formal dress with penguin suits for gentlemen and long dresses for the ladies. It was held in the Savoy Ballroom that was all decked out with buntings, Rotary colours and over 100 flags from other Clubs from all over the world, that our members had collected and visiting Rotarians had ceremoniously presented. The tables had gold cards with the four way test printed on them at each setting where there was also a menu on the back of which were printed the names and years of past Presidents. There were flowers, bowls of sweets and wine on each table. The master of ceremonies would call to attention each official to perform his duties and there would be much banter between our numerous personalities. The evening continued into the night and was fun and yet formal.

This was at a time when there was still the annual Hospital Dinner, when the Round Table performed their annual Melodrama and we were all expected to attend and to be the butt of their jokes. We always seemed to have an annual Rotary function of one sort or another and just as one was expected to stand for President somewhere along the line one was also expected to provide the ideas and organizing of some fund raising project. Mine was a junk sale of old lawnmowers and discards from everyone as well as those from businesses and we raised some R8,000 with Les MacDonald the auctioneer - sadly he is in Hospice right now.

The other thing that has changed for the worse is that monthly meetings of all the avenues of service were held in private homes of Rotarians. This brought us closer together as a group, rotated the hosting and even when our membership was 59 we all knew each other pretty well. During most of my time our membership was mainly about forty and although the target was frequently set at sixty it was decided to start the Kimberley South Club when we were only forty.

We only had one scandal in the early days when a certain bishop spoke to the press about his membership to Rotary and he was reputedly "blackballed" as usual the press got it wrong but the Bishop was never a member.

There were many successes, in numerous small projects and some big ones such as Harmony Home and Belgrave Lodge - more recently the Youth Hostel/Gum Tree Lodge.

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