The Early Days

On 9th September, 1926, a group of local gentlemen held a preliminary meeting in Messrs Soutar’s Rooms, High Street, Arbroath, at which it was decided to form a Rotary Club

This was followed up on 30th September, 1926, when a further preliminary meeting was held attended by the President and the Chairman of the Rotary Club of Dundee, our parent club. The Constitution and Byelaws of Rotary International were explained and adopted. The annual subscription for the first full year was fixed at £2 2/- and it was agreed that the weekly meetings would be held on Thursdays.

Subsequently, formal application to form the club was made to Rotary International which granted the Charter on 17th November, 1926.

The founder members were:

Dr J. D. Gilruth, Medical Practitioner
A. McL. Robertson, Provost & Lemonade manufacturer
J. Joss, Journalist with The Courier
W. B. Davidson, Heating Engineer
J. Lamb, Master Butcher
A. McC. Wilson, Upholsterer
A. M. Fairweather, Boot Manufacturer
J. H. Leuchars, Ironmonger
J. C. Grant, Painter
A. L. Robertson, Veterinary Surgeon

W. M. Soutar, Draper
D. R. Macdonald, Hatter
J. Jack, Chemist
R. C. Lawson, Engineer
H. S. Hunter, Dentist
J. H. Matthew, Costumier
T. W. P. Gourlay, Lawyer
R. Finlayson, Town Clerk
J. M. Scott, Farmer
J. A. Wilson, Canvas Manufacturer

The new club wasted no time in launching into charitable and social projects—in its first year it appointed members to collaborate with the Labour Exchange Committee which interviewed school leavers with the object of finding work for them. They found a Scout Master, a Cub Mistress and a swimming instructor for the Boy Scouts, agreed to co-operate with the BBC in a concert in the town in aid of Arbroath Infirmary, and provided individual members to take an interest in fatherless and deserving boys.

Discussions were also held with Arbroath Infirmary as to the possibility of a room being provided for people in their last hours at the infirmary so that relatives and friends could be alone with the patient at death and not be in a public ward with other people.

Later, club members helped Dale School boys (sent there by the courts) to attend “Dad and Me” nights and helped to supply the older boys with jobs. The club paid for lodgings in Dale School when the boys had started to work and gave them pocket money.

During World War II, in addition to many other activities, in conjunction with Keith Blackman Ltd the club operated a social club for troops stationed in Arbroath and provided it with a “wireless set”, magazines and books and, by March 1940, had supplied 20,000 sheets of writing paper so that the troops could keep in touch with families and friends.

These are just a few of the many local projects undertaken in the early years by our predecessors in the club—and the work continues, although more of it now involves the international scene.