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| Extracts from souvenir programme for – Queen’s Jubilee Celebration in 1977 | |||
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Round Table
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While Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 25 years on the throne, Round Table celebrates its Golden Jubilee. For, fifty years ago, the Round Table movement was inaugurated with the formation of Norwich Round Table in 1927. The movement was the brainchild of Louis Marchesi, a Norwich caterer, who saw both the opportunity and need for an organisation of young professional and business men who could meet, enjoy one another's company, and contribute substantially to practical schemes of community service and voluntary work. From this beginning in Norwich the movement has flourished, until now, fifty years later, there are over 1,200 Tables in Britain and Ireland, with some 35,000 members, and over fifty other countries in which Round Table can be found. The Aims and Objects of Round Table can be summarised as the encouragement of high ethical standards in business and professional life, the development of acquaintance between young men of all vocations, the furtherance of international relations, and concern with and involvement in everything affecting public welfare, particularly on a local community basis. Thus Tablers are often to be found involved in local charities and good causes, and over the years they have raised many hundreds of thousands of pounds, both in response to appeals for help, and to supply areas of need that local Round Tables have themselves identified. It is completely in keeping with the spirit of Round Table that this jubilee year for the movement has been marked not just by internal celebration, but by the practical gift of a lifeboat to the R.N.L.I.; service and celebration can be seen to go hand in hand. Yet while the Round Table movement has seen fifty years of service, no Tabler ever will, for the one inflexible rule is that all Tablers retire on reaching 40. This not only prevents the organisation from becoming an aging clique—a fate that has overtaken many an organisation—but also constantly injects new blood, new ideas, new enthusiasm. And in this spirit we look forward to the next fifty years of fellowship and community service, in the sincere hope that the movement will continue to live up to its own motto: Adopt, Adapt, Improve. |
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