Potted History of the Rotary Club of Clydebank

The first keel plates of the world famous Cunard liner, Queen Elizabeth 2 were laid in John

Brown's east yard on 12 July 1965. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II launched her on 20'th September, 1967. The Queen Elizabeth 2 left JohnBrown's yard fitting-out basin to sail down the Clyde for the opensea at 8am on 19 November 1968. The following day at 7.30pm the Rotary Club of Clydebank was launched in Cameron House Hotel,Hardgate, at its Charter Dinner.

The possibility of a Rotary Club was first discussed in District Council in early 1968.

The Extension Officer at that time was Rotarian John M Kerr of Coatbridge and Airdrie Club. The next step in the formation of the club was to ask the Dumbarton Club to investigate the Clydebank area and determine whether there were approximately fifty men of different trade or professional classifications in the area. The Dumbarton Club reported that such numbers existed.

Rotarian John M Kerr and District Governor, David Findlay, contacted three potential Rotarians in Clydebank, namely, Alex Anderson, owner of Clydebank Travel Services, John Stark, Manager of the Clydebank Branch of the Bank of Scotland, and Alistair Clark, a local general medical practitioner.

These five individuals had a lunchtime meeting in the Radnor Park Hotel and the three, Messers Anderson, Clark and Stark, agreed to help in the  formation of a Rotary Club in the Clydebank area. They were then instructed to attend another lunchtime meeting in two weeks' time and bring with them one or two friends interested in Rotary. Keeping in mind that only one or two members could represent each classification, the process was repeated until gradually the numbers rose to almost thirty. Thereafter, it was decided to meet in Cameron House every Friday at 12.45pm for lunch at 1pm.

On 10 June 1968, the Inaugural Dinner of the Interim Rotary Club of Clydebank was held under the Chairmanship of Rotarian David Findlay, Governor of District 102 and a Past President of the Mother Club Kelvin. There were 28 Interim Rotarians at this dinner. Sadly, one of those present, William Manning, Rector of Clydebank High School, died suddenly two weeks before the Charter Dinner held in November of that year. One of the guests at the Inaugural Dinner was Rotarian J Shirley Murphy of the Elizabeth Club in New Jersey, USA. At this time he was a Vice President of the Singer Organisation and European Director.

The Founder Members who were welcomed into Rotary on 20th November 1968 comprised of the following:

· Alex Anderson, Travel Agency

· Duncan Brown, Quantity Surveying

· Duncan Cameron, Hotel Management

· Kenneth Chapelow, Stationery Distributing

· Albert Chisholm, Education Technical College

· Alistair Clark, General Medical Practitioner

· Albert Crichton, Boiler Cleaning Equipment 

· Alex Cunningham, Church of Scotland Ministry 

· William Dawson, Pump Manufacturing

· Frank Doherty, Department Store Management 

· George Fraser, Sewing Machine Manufacturing 

· William Gilmour, General Law Practitioner

· Ian Henderson, Optical Goods Retailing 

· William Hendry, Steel Fabricating 

· Thomas Izatt, Building

· George Lapping, Baking Retail Manufacturing 

· Alexander Mackenzie, Architect 

· John McLaren, Pharmacy

· Thomas Pate, Meat Retailing 

· David Paterson, Newspaper Retailing 

· Clifford Raworth, Garage Service

· Edward Simpson, Dentistry 

· James Sinclair, Men's Clothing Retailing 

· Douglas Smith, Ship Breaking

· John Stark, Banking 

· Alexander Torrance, Dairy Farming 

John Wotherspoon, Sewing Machine Manufacturing