Newsletter Sep 24 - Flipbook - Page 10
A Short History 1090
The 昀椀rst clubs in these islands were formed in 1911 and by 1918 there were 22 clubs
organised into 6 Districts, all based on County boundaries. Our Coun�es of
Berkshire. and Bucks were in District 3. Oxon, at that �me was in District 2.
“Rotary Interna�onal : Associa�on for Great Britain and Ireland” formed in 1922
was renamed “RIBI” as we know it in 1938.
Various re-distric�ng took place ongoing as from 1919, by which �me District 3 was
absorbed into District 4, including Herts, Essex and Beds.
The Board of Directors of RIBI decided in 1923 that, “to guarantee that men of ability
were evenly distributed throughout the Districts there should be smaller units”, and
thus Oxon, Berks, Bucks and Herts became District 9. The only Club in our present
District was Reading chartered in 1923 followed by Oxford in February 1924 when
the new District was formally created in that year.
Rotary con�nued to exist in a reduced capacity in RIBI during the second World War
and the District Chairmen served for three years each.
In 1957 following drama�c Rotary growth worldwide, RI decided to create a further
500 Districts and, in RIBI, we were told to add 100 to our numbers this District 9
became 109, although this number had to be reallocated to us from Mexico and
Yucatan.
The growth of new clubs con�nued apace and new Districts were created in RIBI. In
1984; when our District had 80 clubs it was decided to split it into two parts. In
1985. the 36 most northerly District clubs in Herts, Beds and parts of Bucks became
District 126 whilst the remaining 44 clubs
stayed in District 109 retaining Berks, Oxon,
part of Bucks, plus parts of Greater London
(Middlesex) and is as we know it today.
In 1987/1988 the District joined the
worldwide campaign to raises funds
for the PolioPlus ini�a�ve. Our clubs
raised a remarkable £250,000 with
events including a half marathon
around the Oxford colleges.