The Rotary Club of Windsor and Eton is a lunchtime Club and meets  at The Mercure Castle Hotel Windsor which is conveniently located in the centre of the town with car parking (map). Normal Meetings are held at 12.30 pm for 1.00 pm every Monday except as shown in panel below. Should you wish to contact the Club Secretary before you visit he can be contacted at wercsec@googlemail.com

Please note that due to storage limitations on the server nearly all photographs in Photo Gallery for the Rotary Year 2006 - 2007 have been removed. Copies are available if required. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Coming up...see Diary for full programme

All Rotary meetings at The Castle Hotel Windsor at 12.30 for 1.00 p.m. until 2.00 p.m. unless stated.

Below is an interactive Calendar of Rotary events beginning on January 1st 2009. Click on any event in Club Calendar to get full details.

The 2009 Duck Race was officially launched in King Edwards Court Windsor on 26th May.

Ducks can be purchased at the Rotary stall in Windsor on every Saturday until the event on 27th June. This year there will be 3000 ducks in the race together with 100 business ducks. More Information or contact wercinfo@googlemail.com

More Photos

Jolly Boating Weather.......President's Night was celebrated very fittingly at the Eton Rowing Lake Boathouse. Nearly 80 people including the majority of President Paul's family attended on a brilliantly sunny evening. Speeches by the President and others were followed by a comedy/magic cabaret which was enjoyed by all, and dancing until midnight.

Rotarians and their wives, after many weeks of rehearsal serenaded Paul and Jane with a unique version of the Eton Boating Song - 'Jolly Rotary Weather' (download your own copy of the words by clicking on this link)                                            More Photos

The Club entertained the new Chief executive of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead who returned the compliment with a talk of his background, his aspirations for his term in office, and his enthusiasm for maintaining links with the service Clubs in the Borough.

The biennial twinning trip to Castricum was as successful as ever. Windsor Rotarians and their wives were led by Senior Vice President James Lang.

The highlight of the weekend was the Saturday reception where the assembled throng were entertained by a cabaret performed by the Castricum Club and their wives. The general consensus was that the bar had been set very high and there was little or no chance of Windsor competing in future visits.

More Photos

'the corgi was not accustomed to all this attention as it went for its morning stroll in the quad'

'Who's that on the dais by David Shaw'

'Who's the onlooker in a rain coat?'

'I didn't know the Prince had a twin!'

'I don’t know who that old fella is standing next to me but I’m David Shaw'

'He's behind you'....

Rotary Meeting 26th April 2009....

Perhaps on reflection a good candidate for a caption competition....

Rotarian David Burch gave an interesting and timely talk on his year as president of the Pig Veterinary Society and the society’s role and relationships in the pig industry regarding its health, welfare and productivity. As well as its technical role, the Society has a strong political role and was able to help Defra at the time with advice regarding strategies to prevent the importation of ‘exotic’ diseases and the control of ‘wasting’ disease, which had ravaged the UK pig industry for 10 years, by the introduction of vaccines under special licence. Obviously, a discussion on swine ‘Mexican’ flu also took place, being the headline news of the day..

MG Rally 24th and 25th April 2009....

Six trees were planted to help carbon footprint and the environment which both Rotary and HRH are keen to promote.

The televised event saw 250 MGs cars take part in the main parade and 650 MGs also lined the Long Walk entrance to Windsor Castle. The Event should raise over £50,000 like the Aston Martin Rally in 2005 to celebrate 100 years of Rotary International. The event consisted of a unique drinks reception in Windsor Castle itself on Friday Night 24th April, The parade on Sat 25th April through the Castle Grounds and Gala Dinner on Saturday night attended by 280 people at The Mercure Castle Hotel Windsor The Rotary Club's home since 1931.

Paul Bayley The President of The Rotary Club of Windsor & Eton drives a TF MG and is a member of The MG Owners Club who helped to organise the Rally together with all The MG car clubs nationwide.        

HRH Prince Philip has been a member of The Rotary Club of Windsor & Eton since 1957 and with his support The Club has raised over £100,000 for local Charities in the last five years.

The picture shows Rotarian HRH Prince Philip planting an English Cherry tree at the MG Rally. HRH The Duke of Edinburgh received a TF 500 black MG for auction to raise funds for the Prince Philip Trust Fund & Rotary Charities.

Mr He Xiaoqing Chairman of MG Motor UK ( now Chinese Owned by SAIC producing 1.8 million cars a year worldwide ) based in Longbridge Birmingham presented the MG Car to HRH and also planted a Chinese Cherry to commemorate the event.

The MG TF 500 is up for silent auction. (Full details are attached). Offers over £9500 are required for the car worth £16000.

Please contact davidf.osmond@btinternet.com for full details or Phone David Shaw on 07740 797 281.

MG Rally 24th and 25th April 2009....

The culmination of months of Planning saw the highly successful Royal Windsor MG Rally take place in and around Windsor Castle over the weekend of 24th and 25th April. The event was opened with a Drinks Reception in the Castle Undercroft which was continued in the Mercure Castle Hotel where an excellent buffet was served with entertainment by a Jazz Band.

The following morning saw 220 excellent examples (including President Paul’s own car) of every vintage of MGs past and present from the MG Owners Club drive past HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in the Castle Quadrangle. Having left the Quadrangle each car made its way down the Long Walk into Frogmore.

The Duke joined by members of MG Motors UK planted two trees in Frogmore Gardens to commemorate 85 years of MG.

A new TF 500 MG under the ownership of MG Motors UK was presented to HRH with the car's keys which is to be sold by silent auction.

HRH having left the site the Public joined by 650 more MG enthusiast parked on the long walk were able to enter Frogmore to inspect the parked historic MGs.

A superb dinner was enjoyed by 280 diners in the Mercure Castle Hotel who were also one of the event sponsors. The guest speaker was ex Rally Driver Paddy Hopkirk.

Other sponsors were Balfour Beattie, Mercure Castle Hotel, Hammerite paints from Slough & George Jones Industrial painters. 

We hope £50,000 will be raised similar to the Aston rally but this is subject to confirmation the principle beneficiaries will be local Charities & organisations around The Royal Borough.

more photos

wercinfo@ googlemail.com