club history

CREWE AND DISTRICT PROBUS CLUB

THE HISTORY OF CREWE & DISTRICT PROBUS

Retired PROfessional & BUSinessmens CLUB

The concept of PROBUS originated from the ideas of two Rotary members who more or less simultaneously but quite independently decided that there should be some social activity and contact between retired professional and businessmen similar to those enjoyed by them in Rotary prior to retirement.

At the behest of Fred Carhill, a meeting was arranged in the early sixties by the President of the Rotary Club of Welwyn Garden City when 45 men met and formed the first club, although it was not called PROBUS at that stage.

As a result of the interest shown in the project by the Rotary District, a leaflet was published by Rotary International encouraging Rotary clubs to sponsor the idea.

Coinciding with this Harold Blanchard the Chairman of Caterham Rotary Club Vocational Service Committee retired and persuaded the members of that Committee to organise a meeting which resulted in the first PROBUS club inaugural meeting taking place on 2nd.March 1966.

Very simple rules were drawn up deliberately to give complete autonomy to each individual club's members, who would then decide on a format that suited their particular requirements and this resulted in a spread of clubs across Great Britain and Ireland and to many overseas countries. No exact number is consequently available but 1997 saw over 1,700 clubs in Great Britain and Ireland alone.

Prior Membership of Rotary is not necessary for Membership of Probus.

In line with the spread of clubs the then President of Crewe Rotary Club, Arthur Timperley and Brian Measures the Chairman of Community Services contacted those people they knew had retired or were on the point of doing so, by letter or local press.

A preliminary meeting was arranged for 13th.October 1971 at the Earl of Crewe Hotel and sufficient interest was shown to lead Crewe Rotary to sponsor the inaugural meeting of Crewe & District Probus Club on 3rd November 1971 at that Hotel.

The creation of the Constitution was assisted by H.Kirk who had been a member of Pontefract Probus Club. The members attending the inaugural meeting were :-

H AULT    C L DICKIN    J LOWNDES   T ROGERS
F A J UTTING   G BISHOP   D E FOX   T E LUDWIG
E R SLACK   R H WALKER   B COLLINS   H KIRK
W S PARKINSON C E SPOKES
Apologies from A R THOMPSON

So much interest was shown in the club that by the end of December 1972 a further 23 members had joined followed by a constant stream of applicants.

The venues for the meetings have been :-

December 1971 to September 1974    Wistaston Manor

October     1974 to November 1981     Earl of Crewe Hotel.

December 1981 to time of writing       Oakley Centre

This history compiled by Past President Ron Armriding