Rotary Club of Gloucester

club history

Rotary Club of Gloucester was chartered on May 1 ,1920 and being  number 27 was one of the first founded in the British Isles. During  the past 80 years the club has provided valuable services to both  the local and international community.

Young people, in particular, have been targeted for help. Even  within the first year, club members acted as Father Christmas to  about 80 of the poorest children of the city. In addition the club  raised funds on a regular basis for the children`s hospital in the  Tewkesbury Road and also contributed to the financing of a Rotary  Boy`s Home at Weston-Super-Mare. The home provided holiday  accommodation for underprivileged boy`s.

Although the home has gone the club`s tradition of providing  holidays for deserving families in the city continues to this day. One of the major events organised by the club before the 1939-45  war was the organising of the Gloucester Royal Infirmary appeal.  The target was £10000 and the club raised £2000 -a considerable  sum in those days.

The association with the hospital has continued in Great Weston  Road. The appeal involved the raising £20000 to cover the cost of  the garden which has provided an area of peace for patients and  other people using the hospital.

Another major fund raising exercise of a similar character was the  installation of a Rotary fountain at the Home for the Elderly at  Trevone House in Denmark Road.

The club is proud of its association with Gloucester and of Her  Majesty`s ship which bears that name. Close links have been  established withvisits by members to the ship and by the officers  and crew to the club.

The club was also instrumental in raising the money for the windows  in Gloucester Cathedral which commemorated the men who died  when a previous HMS Gloucester was sunk off Crete in 1941 during  the Second World War.

On the international front one of the club`s earliest links was with  the Rotary Club of New York which involved hosting American  students on an annual basis. The US club also presented the  American flag to the Gloucester club as early as 1920. This flag  along with the Union flag are laid up in Gloucester Cathedral next to  a plaque which marks the fact that it a Gloucester man John Stafford  Smith who provided the music for the Americian anthum

  TODAY
  During the past three/four years the club has:
  Provided Rotahomes for the homeless in Fiji
  Provided 16 caravans for earthquake victims in Greece and Turkey
  Taken the initiative in raising £16000 to revamp a school for the  mentally handicapped in Fiji (monies raised with the help of  matching grants from the district and Rotary International)
  Collected wheelchairs, zimmers and other walking aids for disabled  people in Tunisia. (This project is still on-going)
  On the home front the Rotary Club of Gloucester continues to make  a difference:
  With an annual party for the residents of the Home Farm Trust at  Frocester
  With an annual party for senior Citizens around Easter
  By continuing to provided holidays for deserving local families
  By its involvement as a joint organiser if the Eastgate Medieval  Fayre in the city centre.
  Through these and many other projects the club continues to give  extensive service to the city of Gloucester and to prove that  Rotary`s motto of Service above Self is alive and well

DAUGHTER CLUBS
Since its formation the Rotary Club of Gloucester has sought to  spread the message of Rotary and extend its work by the formation  of daughter clubs.

These were Cheltenham (in 1921), Stroud (in 1921), Cirencester (in  1929), Ross (in 1950), Gloucester North (in 1979), Newent (in 1977)  and Gloucester Severnside (in 1983).

In their turn some of these clubs have sponsored their own  daughter clubs - thus the work of the Rotary has been made more  widely available

By John Lovell