Formation:

We were founded in 1948 by the Rotary Club of Canterbury and Chartered on 6th April 1949.

This is a copy of the Inaugural Dinner in 1948:

and this is a copy of our Club Charter in 1949:

Our first President was Dr Quentin Evans. Click here to download an account of the formation of the Club:

district/content_files/details_uploads/675/The Formation of HB Rotary Club.doc

 We helped to establish the Rotary Club of Whitstable in 1957.

Past Presidents:

This photograph of the Presidents' Board was taken in March 2009 at The First and Last Free House:

Club History:

During the 1950s the main fund-raising activity was at Christmas when the Club supported a Carol Collection accompanying a mechanised float around the town.

In 1967 Barrie Smith proposed and gained approval for the creation of the first of the seafront displays, and Herne Bay UDC gave permission to place this at the entrance to the Pier. This was built by a group of Club members, and consisted of a tall lighthouse, with a large circular trough of moving water, which carried "Magic Roundabout" characters around, riding in plastic bowls. In 1970 a new display was built that was automated and mounted on a caravan chassis donated by John Fitt, and eventually the Magic Roundabout train was incorporated.

The Magic Roundabout in about 1977

In 1983 the Lighthouse team decided to design and construct the present Tele-Go-Round. This contained animated hand-carved puppets and again the Magic Roundabout train, later modernised to Thomas The Tank Engine, the electronics being designed by George Jones. The Tele-Go-Round was given a major repair in 2002/3 and it is still wheeled out each Spring onto the Sea Front near the Pier, and enraptures children throughout the summer, raising thousands of pounds each year for the local Community, all in small denomination coins, which have to be counted and banked each day by our members. The maintenance is now carried out by Mike Baker. It has been worked out that the ball "dropped" over 2,000 times during the 2006 season, and that the entire project has probably amassed over £50,000 by now- a fantastic achievement!

The Telly-Go-Round in 2003

Between 1992-2002 we organised the Annual Sunday Funday on August Bank Holidays, combining a multitude of activities such as a Boot Fair, Karting, Fairground etc etc, held on the Whitstable Bends. It was our major event of the year and was an important part of Herne Bay's summer programme, and it too raised many thousands of pounds. Unfortunately we were obliged to close down this event through insurance issues.

After the Tsunami hit Sri Lanka on Boxing Day 2004, we immediately asked for the support of our three Contact Clubs to raise relief money, and then applied to Rotary Foundation to match the money raised to help children orphaned by the disaster on Sri Lanka's East Coast. The four Clubs each put in $2,000, District added $2,000, and the Rotary Club of Dickoya was able to add a further $10,000 from other contributions already received. We applied to Rotary Foundation for a matching grant of $11,000 (50% of Club money and 50% District Designated Funds) which was granted.

A total of $31,000 has now been received by the Rotary Club of Dickoya which supported their 86 children for a year with $360 per child, covering the costs of their annual food, clothing, Vitamins & medicines, school books etc. 

The children we have supported are orphans at the Father Mariyanayagam Girls Centre in Sittandy, Batticaloa, Eastern Sri Lanka, and here are some pictures of them:

The Conjoint Relationship:

Click on the link below to read a History of the formation and early development of the Conjoint relationship between ourselves, Cambrai, Remscheid and Emmen RCs:

district/content_files/details_uploads/675/The History of Conjoint at HBRC.doc 

Sea Angling:

A small number of Herne Bay Rotarians, past and present, were actively involved with a District- then 112- Sea Angling Fellowship which functioned between its formation in 1970 and 1990, when dwindling membership and recruitment failure forced dissolution.

HBRC members who participated- some more regularly than others- were usually the largest single Club contingent at the monthly outings around the coast, and consequently featured prominently in the annual lists of Trophy winners. Members involved included Eric Heselden, Don Raabe, Des Rowden, Terry Meehan, Peter Samsworth, John Woodward and Tony Bowell.