A brief history of Lincoln and District Club
The inaugural meeting of the Lincoln and District Club was held on 20th October, 1945, with Miss Joyce as its first president. Our mother club is Nottingham.
In its first year it achieved 37 members who went to a regular monthly meeting and joined together in the first charter ceremony on 16th October, 1946. The club’s service to the local community started early with members holding a party for 30 girls from the remand home in January, 1947. During their evening meetings members heard talks on various topics including art, crime and travel. Magazines were collected for women in prison and a parcel of toys and clothes was sent to a children’s nursery in Italy.
Times were still hard; petrol was rationed so travelling to other clubs was difficult and minutes also record members’ thanks to the Beverley Hills Soroptimists in the United States for the parcels they had sent.
During 1948 club member Mrs Turner donated a solid silver Georgian spoon to be melted for the president’s badge, designed and made by students from the Lincoln School of Art. Miss Spence-Whyte gave moonstones and garnets. The insignia, which depicts St Hugh of Lincoln and his swan, was finished in 1949.
Early friendship links were made with clubs in Santa Anna in the United States and Esbjerg in Denmark.
By the early 1950s membership was up to 50.