THE HISTORY OF DISTRICT1100, England

A Part of Our History of Rotary in Europe

Prepared by the district and not verified by Rotary Global History

The clubs in District 1100 owe their origin to the Edinburgh Club which helped to sponsor the Bristol Club in 1917, in what was then District 4. 

Bristol soon made its mark with a "shop" raising over £170,000, half the cost of a new cruiser for the Royal Navy. 'Star' cashiers included the Duchess of Beaufort and the music hall artist, Miss Vesta Tilley. 

3 years later the Gloucester Club was founded, followed soon afterwards by Stroud and Cheltenham. 

In 1920, this became District 5. 

During these early days many clubs were started which are now in other districts. 

In 1923 the handful of  clubs in Somerset. Gloucestershire, Hereford and North Wiltshire were again re-numbered to form District 10.

District 1100 was one of the 6 RIBI districts originally comprising District 10 which in turn, was responsible for one of the biggest community service projects of that period.

Here are the details -

A proposal to open a Rotary Boys House at Weston-super-Mare was made at District level in February 1923. By May, this large house in South Road had been purchased by money raised by the Clubs of District 10, and opened for holidays for socially disadvantaged children aged between 9 and 14 from Bristol and the Midlands. A per capita levy of 2/6d was made by each Rotarian member of the District. The House was a splendid example of service to the community, and continued until 1976 , when inflation, social changes and legislation and the need for extensive repairs made it impossible to continue its work. In all, almost 30,000 boys benefited from holidays from the scheme. The proceeds from the sale of the House are now held by the Rotary Holidays for Children Trust, administered by one Trustee from each of the original participating Districts (now known as 1060, 1100, 1170, 1200, 1210 and 1290).

On June 18, 1928, Paul Harris on a tour of Britain visited Bristol for a lunch meeting attended by Rotarians from the District and 
beyond.  After his talk, Paul Harris was presented with a souvenir set of six novels written by Eden Phillpotts, one of which was 
autographed by the author. 

Harris was back in the District on June 5, 1934 when he spoke to over 150 Rotarians from 11 clubs who travelled to Cheltenham to hear him.  After this meeting, he was presented with a scroll and a watercolour of a Cotswold scene which had been painted by the wife of Scott Langley, an RIBI Director and Cheltenham member. 

These can now be seen in the Paul Harris office in R.I. Centre, Evanston.

The District remained as 10 until 1957 when 100 was added to the number and 10 became 110.

Then in 1991 an extra zero was added to all district numbers so that 110 became 1100 which is its present number. 
It now has over 2000 members in some 64 clubs. 

The District has produced three Presidents of RIBI from the present group of clubs, Derek Langford in 1983/4, David Liddiatt in 2001/2, and Ian Thomson 2008/9 but there have been others from clubs which have since become allocated to other Districts.

The development of the District and the parentage of the various clubs can be seen in the accompanying family tree.
 

CHART 1 DISTRICT 1100 – COMPLETE FAMILY TREE @ SEPT 2008

acknowledgements to author noted above

posted by RGHF Webmaster Greg Barlow. September 2008