History of The Lions Clubs International Organisation
The International Association of Lions Clubs started as a dream in the mind of a young Chicago Insurance agent. The man was MELVIN JONES, the dream was the consolidation of several independent clubs, already in existence, into one strong influential unit for service to humanity.
Born on the 13 January l879 in the Cavalry Outpost located at Fort Thomas, Arizona where his father was a Cavalry Officer, he was brought up and educated in Illinois and by the age of 33 had established his own insurance agency.
He was invited to become a member of a local Business Circle, but soon began to get the feeling that something was wrong with the picture. All 200 members were influential businessmen yet did little more than pat each other on the back. What if these men's talents could be put to work in unselfish service in other areas of community life.
By 1916 he had begun to sound out other similar clubs throughout the United States with this idea and eventually, on 17 June 1917, 20 Delegates representing 27 clubs, met in Chicago and as a result formed what was to become the Lions Clubs International.There was no magical formula to arrive at the name " LIONS. Suggested names were voted upon by secret ballot, but obviously the suggested name owed much to the name of one of the founding clubs, namely" Lions Club of Indiana".
So was formed the" Association of Lions Clubs", which added,' International " to its name when in 1920 the Windsor Ontario Lions Club of Canada was chartered.
Since that time our Association has grown into an Association of nearly 42,500 clubs in 185 countries with over 1.40 million members. Lions are the youngest and largest of the major service club organisations in the world.
Lions in Europe
It was not until 1948 that the first Lions club in Europe was organised in Stockholm.
There now are over 8250 clubs with well over a quarter of a million members in the European constitutional area, which consists of 26 Countries.
Lions in this Country
England
saw the first Lions Club being formed in London shortly after the war, which has now grown to almost 1,000 Clubs in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Eire comprising around 21,000 members.The Queen Mother
is acknowledged as the catalyst for the introduction of Lions Clubs into this country, when in the war many Canadian servicemen visiting London were appalled by the way the children of the Blitz lived, with poor food, few clothes, frequent danger, Mums serving in the factories and Dads fighting overseas and so many homes destroyed. Some of these Canadians were members of Lions Clubs and they decided they wanted to help.Funds
were raised in Canada and at first it was thought that the money would be distributed by British Lions Clubs but there weren't any!The Queen
(now the Queen Mother) was at the time the patron of the Church of England's Children?s Society and arranged for the Society to distribute the funds on behalf of the Canadian Lions.After the War the Queen sent Lord Leconfield to Canada to thank the Lions for their help. He asked if there was anything he could do in return, to which he was invited to visit the Chicago Headquarters of Lions Clubs International. They wanted Lord Leconfield to see what Lionism meant and so impressed was he that shortly after his return in 1950 a group of professional and business men got together and formed the first Lions Club known as the 'Host Club' in London.
Their Aim.
To Help those in need and to spread Lionism throughout the British Isles, and although the needs of the community have changed since the Blitz, the Motto 'WE SERVE' holds as true today as it did then.For administration purposes Lions Clubs throughout the world are divided into Geographical Districts and we are in District 105. This is broken down into sub-districts and we are, therefore, in Sub-District 105 'C", hence our reference to being in District 105 C.
For the first 10 years of Lionism within the UK all clubs were in just one District (i.e. no sub-district) and it was the unfortunate lot of the District Governor of the time to have to cover and visit clubs in all parts of the nation. One such Governor was the late PDG Richard Peacock, of the Leeds Club, who was a real pioneer of our organisation.
By 1961, two sub-districts had been formed and District 105 became what is now referred to as a MULTIPLE DISTRICT and by 1964 the 100th Club was formed. Since then our involvement in the British Isles and Ireland rapidly expanded - a further 100 clubs in the next 5 years, 300 more in the succeeding 6 years and a further 300 to 800 by 1984. Since 1984 our growth has slowed down somewhat however, our Multiple District has now grown to 13 sub-districts.
Our District 105C has 61 Lions Clubs covering most of Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. The area stretches from Ripon and Boroughbridge in the north to Buxton and Sett Valley in the south and from Withernsea and Hull in the East to Todmorden and Calder Valley in the West.
The oldest clubs in our district are Bradford (1952) Leeds (1953) Keighley (1955) and Driffield, Harrogate and Huddersfield (1956)
.1999/2000 saw the 50th anniversary of Lions Clubs in the United Kingdom.
Lions Clubs
are open to anyone over 21 years of age and although originally Male only clubs these are now becoming mixed as more Ladies express a wish to help their Local Community through organisations like Lions Clubs International.
In addition to Lions Clubs there are all female Lioness Clubs and Leos Club for the younger members of the community.