© Wessex District Association of the Cyclists’ Touring Club
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WESSEX CTC
History and Administration
History and Administration
THE HISTORY OF THE WESSEX CTC
A historical survey by Keith Matthews.
A history of the later years of our venerable DA is long overdue, and with our centenary looming in 2011 time to set down some of the record. I joined the club in 1976 and was a club official shortly after and can write with some authority of the recent epoch, although memory dims at times! The period that follows from the time of my honourable predecessor Bernard Miller’s time until now is in danger of being lost. Fortunately, at the time of writing in 2007, there are still some members around who can help and their contributions are gratefully acknowledged.. The club minutes dating back to our founding in 1911 are still in my safe-keeping., but make for some very dry reading. I suppose they should be scanned but my courage fails me here as there is so much. Photographs and news clippings are sparse though, for then as now, we prefer to just get out on our bikes without worrying overmuch about stopping to take pictures or report things to the newspapers.
Bernard Miller who wrote the earlier history had access to technology, for, from the date of his election in 1920 the minutes are typed. Advanced for then! After his history finishing in 1932, there was obviously some trouble in the DA during 1934, the result of the Eastern section wishing to break away and form a Southampton DA. The vote was lost, but Bernard Miller, being a Southampton man probably resigned as a result. Many DA records are lost from his period as secretary. Some points seem worth picking out from the DA papers of the time; the sections then were Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western and it seems that after having specifically excluded the Isle of Wight from the DA area in its early days, there was actually an IOW section briefly for a year or two in 1937/38. Over these years, a group of names begin to appear in the paperwork; Arthur Moss, Charlie Laine, Don Dickenson, Dudley Palmer and Cyril Neale. The young bloods of their time, they were to figure greatly later.
The Wessex DA celebrated its golden jubilee in 1961 with a relay ride, and a formal dinner which was adopted by the CTC as the national dinner. Cyril Scott, who was a founder member of the DA and was also secretary after the Great War, was DA President at the Golden Jubilee. There were two other names prominent at that dinner. Clifford Andrews, a Wessex member who had served as DA secretary during WWII, was at the time of the dinner Chairman of CTC Council. Arthur Moss, another Wessex member, a JP, and latterly Mayor of Wareham, was vice-chairman of CTC too by that time. Wessex DA had great influence nationally then. This involvement at national level continued in recent years as I served on National Council from 1980 until 1991 at which time Julian James stood in my place under my proposal to continue as CTC Councillor until the present day.
The Diamond Jubilee was marked by similarly in 1972 in the grand premises of the Bournemouth Pavilion. At this time Chris Freemantle was DA President and Cyril Neale Vice President of the DA. It is interesting that the keynote speech was one of the earliest promotions of environmental concerns on record. Ron Cook of Salisbury, the long-term DA Secretary, was awarded the club Certificate of Merit and feted for his mile-eating record. Shortly after this celebration and in an uncanny echo of the 1934 debacle, in 1975 there was an acrimonious breaking away of the Southampton section. This time the move was successful and they formed the South Hants DA. The Salisbury section had ceased to exist by this time and so this represented a further paring down of the Wessex area. At this distance in time and with current friendly relationships with our neighbouring DA, it seems entirely logical that Southampton should have split away and the hints of heated arguments embedded in the DA minutes now seem pointless and ill-conceived.
