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Forward

Hamilton Speakers' Club holds an honoured place in the development of the movement in Scotland and indeed, in Britain.

It was the first club to be formed in Lanarkshire and through the missionary efforts of its early members, other clubs were established in and beyond the county.

How Hamilton Club came into being and how it was responsible for spreading public speaking, is a story worth telling. The club's fortieth anniversary seems an appropriate point at which to bring its history up to date.

Birth and Growth

Hamilton Speakers' Club owes its birth to the infectious enthusiasm of another club who refused to take "No" for an answer and the discerning wisdom of a Hamilton man who was persuaded to overcome his natural diffidence and took the first, vital steps to gather a group of interested men in the town.

It is conceivable that without James B Gibson a club would ultimately have been formed in Hamilton. But it is a privilege of which members at the time of the club's formation and for many years thereafter were keenly aware that it should have had such a worthy and gentlemanly founder.

This is Jimmy's account of how Toastmasters, the precedessor of the Association of Speakers' Clubs to which we now belong, was introduced into Hamilton:-

"I had a good friend, Mr Robert Kellock, Chief draughtsman of Messrs John Hastie and Co., Ltd., engineers , Greenock, who was president of the Toastmasters Club in that town. I visited him every third week on business, had lunch with him in their canteen, and before he went back to his office we used to go for a walk. The conversation during lunch and the walk was all about Toastmasters amd did I not think of starting a club in Hamilton among my friends? I really felt nervous about the whole business and for long enough I gave a negative reply. But the day came when I agreed to 'have a go' I was told Jimmy, all you have to do is pick out 30 of your friends and send their names and addresses to Mr Jim Ewart (the"big shot"in the Toastmasters for the West of Scotland at that time).'

In due course we were all notified to attend a meeting in Auchingramont North Church halls (now demolished). It was attended by Mr Ewart, Mr Kellock,and a number of members of the Greenock Club, who gave a demonstration of Toastmasters.Office-bearers were elected, our club was launched there and then and it has never looked back since. In fact, we have gathered in strength and also in dignity."

That inaugural meeting, held on Tuesday, May 10th 1949, had brought to Hamilton a movement founded in 1924 at Santa Ana, California, USA by Dr Ralph Smedley, a YMCA Secretary,to assist men in speaking in public. This idea, which in time became Toastmasters International, appealed to Mr William Goldie, a Glasgow business man, when he visited the United States in 1935. Through his efforts the Glasgow Toastmasters Club was formed in 1937 and was the first in Britain to survive.

By 1949 there were 14 clubs in Scotland. Members from Greenock and Glasgow clubs played a big part in helping the new club in Hamilton. Under the presidency of James Griffen the club prospered and formally came into being with the issue of its Charter on November 24th 1949. It received its Charter from District Governor A.B. Young at a dinner in the Royal Hotel, Hamilton, on March 9th 1950.

The Club quickly became established in the town and took its place easily among similar societies. Finding a suitable meeting place proved quite a problem. During its first 15 years the Club met in the Liberal Club rooms Auchingramont North Church halls, the YMCA rooms at Gilbertfield (all now demolished), the Commercial Hotel (now the Hamilton Town Hotel),the Grange (now Avonbridge Hotel), and the Masonic Halls in Cadzow Street.

The educational side of the club's activities in public speaking, was soon leavened by the addition of regular social events.A ladies night was successfully attempted. The Burns Night, not always entirely successful in the early years eventually combined with the ladies night and is now long-established as one of the finest gatherings of its kind to be held annually in Hamilton.

Hamilton Club, it may be said without exaggeration, has made a significant contribution to the speakers' movement nationally. For a decade until the mid-60s, there was at least one Hamilton member on the District Territorial Executive Committee of the Toastmasters International. The club provided two presidents of the British organisation, two Educational Directors, one Secretary, one National Organiser, and four Editors of the official British Magazine.

In common with most Toastmasters in Britain, Hamilton decided to withdraw from Toastmasters International and become part of the Association of Speakers Clubs as from January 1st, 1971.

Ten years previously Toastmasters in Britain had been given a large measure of self-determination, the governing body becaming the Territorial Council of the British Isles, compared with the previous status of District.

But in the late 1960s differences arose between the Toastmasters headquarters in Santa Ana and the T.C.B.I. These proved to be irreconcilable and the T.C.B.I. ceased to function. It was succeeded by the Association of Speakers' Clubs, to which all but a few clubs affiliated.

At about the same time as the change in name,the Hamilton Club decided to change its meeting place from Hamilton Masonic Hall, where it had spent many successful years, attaining its biggest membership of 51 plus the highest average weekly attendance of 33 in the early 1960s.

The desire for change had been evedent for some time, and the meeting place was switched to the Avonbridge Hotel. That was not completely satisfactory, and in 1974 there was a further flitting across the road to the Angus Hotel (now demolished). That was even less successful and after a brief spell in the Hamilton College of Education the club met for many years in Fairhill Commmunity Centre. The venue was then switched to Ferniegair Community Hall in 1987.

For many years Hamilton Speakers' Club was active in visiting other clubs in the town, arranging demonstrations of public speaking and engaging in joint meetings with other speakers' clubs.While this side of club affairs has tended to deminish, the executive continues to respond as frequently as possible to requests from outside organisations to supply a speaker.

Missionary work was an integral part of the Hamilton Club in its early days. All other clubs in Lanarkshire owed their existence directly or indirectly to Hamilton. On at least one occasion its members travelled far, to Kilmarnock, as pioneers. Time was when old members could, and did, recall some of these visits: to dreary cafes, to ill lit and unheated miners' welfare halls; even on occasion to places locked and barred, where they sought to induce the somewhat suspicious locals to form a club. It says much for their enthusiasm that they often succeeded.

Highlights from the past may be recalled. The hilarious hustings in Auchingramont Halls when a candidate in a red jersey won the day to his own astonishment; a Welshman holding a Scottish audience spellbound with a rather "Irish" explanation of how the English came to like Mulligitawny soup; a ladies night with over eighty guests in a room 14ft by 10ft; a"deliberate errors" speach in which a distinguished Past President sprayed model railway engines like a fountain; a past presidents night when an equally distinguished gentleman displayed every symtom of advanced intoxication while explaining the Japanese genius for imitation; and other p.p.nights where vigorous music hall turns were interspersed with leared speeches on the odd habits of various birds or the doubtful ancestry of sports which appeared to die a death before they ever came to life. Unfortunatly, a dearth of talent of a suitable kind among Past Presidents led eventually to the demise of that highlight of the season.

Efforts to stimulate recruitment included, for several sessions, tutorial courses, but few students taking part remained as members. Publicity was often hard to come by, and the club has alwaysbeen thrown back on the only really effective method of recruitment; personal contact.

Membership of the club has changed considerably over the years. In terms of personnel, it is impossible to calculate with any accuracy the number of men who have been associated with it since its formation, but it must be around 300.

Early on, the average age tended to be in the fourties and fifties, but later there were long periods where the average declined sharply.

The club has attracted men from a wide occupational range, including bankers, teachers, journalists, farmers, civil servants, local goverment officials, engineers, sales representatives, miners, grocers, phsiotherapists, chemists, news agents.

Hamilton Club is now one of the longest established organisations in the town. It has had its ups and downs in membership and attendance, but throughout it has retained its vigour and willingness to help others to improve their power of self-expression and their ability to listen critically.

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