TWO City of Hereford Rotary Club members have notched up 100 years of service to the organisation.

The pair, Alan Blake and Bill Edwards, received awards from another long-standing member, Derek Foxton, to mark each of them completing 50 years as an integral part of the club, which meets weekly at the Bay Horse Inn.

Alan and Bill's extraordinary dedication to the club means that they have been members of the club for well over half of its existence.

City of Hereford Rotary Club was formed in 1930 but its genesis came five years before that.

In April 1925, the Hereford Times reported that the then mayor, Councillor W G C Britten, who was also a leading light in the Hereford Herd Book Society and the Three Counties Show, was to establish a club in the city.

The origins of Rotary were in the USA where, so the paper reported, then male-only clubs 'featured men representing a different trade or profession for the interchange of views on business and other matters, religion and politics being excluded from discussion'.

Mr Britten has been a guest at a meeting of the Gloucester club and was suitably impressed.

"Members do not sit where they wish but draw letters corresponding with positions at the table," he told the Hereford Times. "Thus there is bound to be a beneficial interchange of views and ideas.

"There is no froth. Everyone is keen and the speeches are crisp and to the point so that everyone is anxious to listen."

Despite Mr Britten's enthusiasm, it was another five years before the paper was able to report on the inaugural meeting of the club in April 1930 at the Booth Hall.

The Dean of Hereford, Dr Reginald Waterfield was elected president and among the first members were the town clerk T B Feltham, postmaster A E Craven, G H Peacock of the Hereford Times, vet F L Clunes, dentist G B Cooper, bank manager R J Edwards, hospital secretary H A Froggatt, city surveyor W M Shimmin, life assurer L M Raymont, GP Dr C W Walker, chief constable Freeman Newton, accountant A E Wood, pharmacist E M Whiting, retailer Sidney Marchant and a name from the motor trade well-known to later generations, R P Ravenhill.

In October of the same year, a Charter Night welcomed 68 Rotarians, some from as far afield as Bristol, Worcester, Bath, Gloucester, Cirencester, Weston-super-Mare, Stroud, Swindon, Buxton and Manchester, to the Booth Hall for a formal launch.

Since then, the club has continued to be a part of life both in the city and the wider community.

In 1940, the club instigated the setting up of a Citizens Advice Bureau in the city.

And, in the same year, the Rotarians showed their wartime spirit by 'adopting' a minesweeper the HMS Milford Prince, stating its intention to send to the crew from time to time, 'comforts' such as cigarettes, pipe tobacco, navy-blue scarves, Balaclava helmets, mittens, novels and sweets.

Happily the association brought some fortune as the vessel took part in D-Day and survived the war before being scrapped in 1960.

Since then, the club has supported countless projects in this country and overseas, including the Limuru Boys Centre in Kenya, the Massindi residential education centre in Uganda, a well project in Mudurai West in India, the Chernobyl Children's Link and continues to back, among many others, projects in Nepal and Cambodia as well as actively supporting the ongoing fight against polio.

The club's membership has continued to hold up well - a reported 52 members in 1953 compares favourably with membership in the 40s in different social conditions today.

And the club, whose purpose remains 'service above self' and promotes the popular annual city 'duck race', has thrived with the decision to allow women members in 1989.

Richard Hammonds, still an active member and the club's president in that year, said at the time: "Nothing much has changed. In just the same way as men, women will still have to be invited to join if members felt they would be able to contribute individually to the club - in just the same way men are selected.

"We are not an elderly businessman's luncheon club out of touch with reality. In fact, we are actively seeking younger members to ensure that does not happen."

Anyone interested in joining City of Hereford Rotary Club should contact membership chairman Nick Tecza on nicktecza@live.co.uk