A very well attended Handover meeting took place at the Mercure Castle Hotel on the traditional date of the evening of the last Monday in June.

Paul Harris fellowships were presented to Michael Shanly for his years of support to Rotary, and Rtn Douglas Hill for his contribution to Rotary and Mencap through 34 years of the Mencap Dinner.

Outgoing President Paul then treated all present to a slide show of his year and thanked all concerned for contributing to the success of his year. Paul then handed his chain of office to James Lang who then appointed his Senior and Junior Vice Presidents.

Duck Race  27th June 2009 .......

In front of a large and noisy crowd 2100 plastic ducks and 100 business ducks were dropped into the Thames at the allotted hour of four in the afternoon. The river was a somewhat uncooperative participant in the fun, because after weeks without rain it was decidedly sluggish and the ducks had to be encouraged on their way using various means including the wash from boats specifically moored behind the start line for the purpose. In a time only marginally slower than last year the first business ducks crossed the line followed some minutes later by the others.

The Winners were as follows                                                     Business Ducks

101    Uma Patel

17      David Jessey

27      Christopher Francis

63      Liquid Night Club

Rotary Midsummer Fayre 27th June 2009......

A warm summer midsummer day brought out the crowds to the Annual Rotary Midsummer Fayre.

The perfect weather brought large crowds to the large number of Charity Stalls which included stalls run by Inner Wheel and the Merry Wives of Windsor who all had a great day.

To the backdrop of the wheel the Fayre was opened by the Deputy Mayor of Windsor and Maidenhead, who accompanied by President Paul visited all the stalls and tried out their wares.

The Rotary Club is very grateful to their sponsors and the people of Windsor who support this event every year, and given good weather make it such a success. At 4 o'clock the added attraction of the duck race took place on the river bank, adding a fitting end to a great day

President's weekend away to Bristol 19th -21st June 2009....

33 people - members of WERC, their wives, Inner Wheelers, and members of Windsor St.George joined President Paul in a pilgrimage back to the city of his birth, Bristol. The weekend got off to a fairly liquid start courtesy of Eric Darde, General Manager of the Mercure Castle Hotel Windsor. Eric very kindly arranged a champagne reception in the Brigstow Hotel (another Mercure Hotel) where the group was staying.

A convivial dinner in a waterside restaurant followed, and in the morning after a cautious breakfast a tour of Bristol commenced. The highlights of the day were the visits to the SS.Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the Georgian House preserved in tact from the time it was built.

Lunch was taken in the well preserved village of Clifton close to the suspension bridge

As usual with a tour organised by Paul it was comprehensive and fact filled and after a day most of the group felt they had had as good an introduction to the essence of Bristol as was possible in such a short time. Paul and Jane were presented with a print of the SS Great Britain by those that attended.

A welcome couple of hours R & R preceded dinner in another  restaurant close the hotel with everyone making their way home on Sunday morning.

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

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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.

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'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.

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Stroke Awareness Day 18th April 2009....

160+ members of the public going about their normal Saturday shopping trip to Windsor succumbed to the silky salesmanship of various Rotarians and submitted themselves to routine blood pressure check carried out by St John's Ambulance. This was one outpost in a countrywide campaign on the same day to heighten the public's awareness of strokes and the causes of strokes.

Pictured is President Paul doing his duty!!

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Evening Meeting at TVAC 30th March 2009

The Club continued its tour of Eton College venues by holding the '5th' Monday evening meeting at the Thames Valley Athletic Club. The guest speaker spoke on behalf of The Air Ambulance Service which is entirely funded by charitable donations.

Rotary Careers Fair 23rd -24th March 2009

Rtn. Richard Carleton and his team ran the first of what we hope will be an annual Careers Fair at the Windsor Arts Centre. Attendance was reasonable and those who did attend came away with all the advice they needed. Many lessons have been learnt for future years. This is a project WERC see as an annual event into the foreseeable future.

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Rotary District Conference Torquay 20th - 22nd March 2009....

9 Rotarians and their wives attended this year's District Conference which was held in sunny Torquay. Whilst following a familiar pattern Torquay was new venue to most of those attending and a good time was had by all, backed up by excellent speakers and causes at the Conference itself.

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Surgeon Vice-Admiral Ian Jenkins 1944 - 2009

It was with huge sadness and regret that the Club learned of the sudden death of one of our honorary members - Surgeon Vice-Admiral Ian Jenkins - three days after he last visited and spoke to the Club.

Ian was, until his death, the new Governor of Windsor Castle, having only recently taken up his post in 2008.

Ian very quickly became well known in Windsor, and our Club was lucky enough to see him on several occasions at Club meetings and other events with which we are involved. The Club extends its sincere sympathy to his family.

A full biography of Ian is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_L._Jenkins

(Photograph reproduced from article in Maidenhead Advertiser)

Shelter Boxes 2nd March 2009....

Rtn. Fred King gave the Club an update on the Shelter Box Project, including saying precisely where in the world the 10 Boxes purchased by the Club had gone.

Age Concern Working Together Lunch - 8th February 2009...

Also pictured are l. to r. Elizabeth Jones aged 94( Blind ) , The Mayor of Windsor & Maidenhead Dorothy Kemp, Ben Barnes aged 86 ( Blind ) 

Pictured standing with Derek is Catherine Mclinden - Chief Officer Age Concern Windsor. 

Lunch and Visit to East Berkshire College 9th February 2009...

New car for wounded soldier.....

The Rotary Club of Windsor & Eton gave the last £3000 shortfall to enable L/Cpl Simon Wiggins of The Coldstream Guards based in Windsor, to purchase his special adapted car after losing his right leg in Helmand Province last March.

Paul Bayley President & Rotarian Chris Simon attend a thank you to the local community party for they help in getting the £20,000 and to the warrant officers that did Hougoumont Challenge, 10 warrant officers over 35 , each doing a 10.2 mile circuit around the barracks 4 times , did it in 60 hours with all of them carrying on with their jobs .

Also some other soldiers did the Three Peaks Challenge . On the night a cheque for £20,000 was handed over so Simon Wiggins can get his specially adopted car. The group picture shows left to right Commanding officer LT Col Toby Gray, President Paul Bayley, Lance corporal Wiggins & Chris Simon Rotarian & Treasurer of The Paralympics Association UK.

Visit by Fazal Ahmed 26th January 2009...

Fazal Ahmed gave an enlightening talk on Humanity First which is a local  organisation in Slough and is very similar to Rotary and works very closely with several Rotary clubs including overseas ones .

It goes to International Disaster Areas and provides hands-on aid for all, but also carries out projects in villages like teaching IT in Africa etc. 

Humanity First regularly take a stall at our Royal Windsor Mid Summer Fayre. 

Induction of two new members 12th January 2009...

Additional Christmas Street Collection December 20th 2008...

Collection in King Edward Court Thursday 20th December serving mulled wine & mince pies courtesy of Waitrose.

The event was organised by King Edward Court for late evening shoppers which included a youth band from East Berks Music centre & husky rides. 

Philip Reynolds, Guy Barlow, Paul Bayley President & Father Christmas helping too.

Lunch at Victoria Barracks December 15th 2008...

Christmas Street Collection December 6th 2008...

The Annual Street Collection at King Edward Court began on 6th and 7th December. Further Collections will take place at Tescos on 13th and 14th.               

Christmas Party December 5th 2008....

WERC held its first Christmas party for many years in the Master's Common Room at Eton College organised by President Paul.

56 revellers from not only WERC but also Windsor St George, Inner Wheel, and Merry Wives attended a traditional Christmas meal of turkey and all the trimmings and were entertained by Eton College's close harmony group 'Incognito'.

The evening was capped off with 'traditional' Christmas Carols.

New Chairman of Age Concern Windsor...

WERC Junior Vice President Derek Bishop was installed as the new Chairman of Windsor Age Concern on Wednesday 4th December.

Visit by Celle Rotarian 24th November 2008....

The Club was visited on 24th November by Johan Wichmann a member of Celle Rotary Club and his wife Christa. Pictured with them are President Paul Bayley, and Treasurer Chris Simon.

Rotary Youth Speaks 17th November 2008...

5 Junior Teams from Brigidine Convent, St Edward's Royal Free, St Peter's Old Windsor, and 2 teams from Trevelyan.

Winning Team - St Edwards Royal Free - "why staying single is never a good idea " Chairperson Shannon Hodgins, Speaker Joseph Vacher, Vote of Thanks Olivia Spindlow 

Best Speaker Award ( Bob Moore Memorial Prize ) - James Hart " How cool is it to play a musical instrument " from St Peter's CE Middle School Old Windsor 

5 Senior Teams - Brigidine, Windsor Boys & Windsor Girls x3 

Winning Team - Windsor Boys School - Chairperson - Jonathan Patton, Speaker Peter Harrold, Vote of Thanks Nick Hyett - " Is Modern Life Rubbish " 

Best Speaker ( Bob Moore Memorial Prize ) - Peter Harrold - Windsor Boys School - " Is Modern Life Rubbish " 

The two teams will go into the zone Rotary Final in Slough on Monday 2nd of February 09

Paul Bayley President presented the Prizes 

Remembrance Day 9th November 2008...

Both Rotary Clubs and Inner Wheel were represented at the laying of the wreaths at the War Memorial in Windsor. Pictured are Jean Davis, President of Inner Wheel, Roy Hockedy of Windsor St George and Paul Bayley and Colin Hayes of WERC.

Provost of Eton's visit 28th October 2008...

Sir Eric Anderson retiring Provost of Eton College & Honorary Rotarian of The Rotary Club of Windsor & Eton spoke about his role of Provost to his fellow Rotarians today at The Mercure Castle Hotel

Sir Eric gave an extremely interesting talk about his role as ambassador for Eton College Nationally & Internationally plus his involvement in the local community e.g. as President of The Windsor & Eton Society.

President Paul Bayley presented Sir Eric with a new Rotary Tie & thanked him for his great support locally. Paul is Buildings Officer at Eton & first came to Eton back in the 1980's at a similar time to when Sir Eric was first Headmaster of Eton.

Thames Hospicecare Sunrise Walk 5th October 2008...

7 Rotary ladies from WERC and Windsor St.George got up at the unearthly hour of 4 am to take part in the annual Sunrise walk in Windsor Great Park. They followed a six and a half mile route in mostly pouring rain starting at 6 am and finishing shortly after 8 when a full English breakfast accompanied by Bucks Fizz was waiting for them at the home of Rtn. David Shaw. To date they have raised £750 in sponsorship for the Thames Valley Hospice which hopefully will grow.

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Rotary Art Exhibition 26th - 28th September 2008...

In association with Windsor Festival took place at Windsor Parish Church - Friday 26th September to Sunday 28th of September 10am to 5pm each day.

List of artists:- 14 artists in total, 45 paintings exhibited. Felicity Abbott; Barbara Coombs; Clare Grindley; Daisy Gribble; Florence Clark; Joanna Wessely; Mary Campbell Leone; Margaret Campbell; Kevin Taggerty; Kathy Swift; Ron Ripley; Mike Corcoran; Ron Lewandowski; Denis Blandford.

On Saturday 27th of September Rotarian Surgeon Vice Admiral Ian Jenkins Governor of Windsor Castle hosted an official opening of the exhibition together with the Artists at 12 noon followed by lunch in the Church. Teas were served in the church during the whole of the exhibition.

Ian Jenkins thanked all the artists for their contributions & great variation of pictures on the theme of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. David Shaw PR officer Commented that Ian look a great deal of time to make sure he spoke to all the artists over lunch which was very much appreciated by everyone. All the artists really enjoyed sitting down with each other to discuss their paintings in an informal manner which often they don't get chance to do normally.

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Golf Day 6th August 2008...

The Annual Charity Golf Day, held once again at Eton College was once again a great success raising over £1000 for Rotary Charities. Ten teams took part and all posted very good scores.

Rotarians and Inner Wheelers helped on the day with marshalling and teas.

Dinner followed at the Masters Common Room which was the usual very high standard. Organiser Bob Pickles wishes Thank all who did for taking part hoping they enjoyed themselves and will enter a team next year.

with a tentative date of Wednesday August 5th for 2009to be pencilled  into your diaries. The scores were outstanding and below are the final results.                                                                                             1. Dew Sweepers - 92   2. Iverleaguers - 92   3. Near and Fore - 91

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The Wheel Returns 25th July 2008...

President Paul and other members of WERC and their wives attended the official re-opening of the Windsor Wheel, which once again fills the Windsor skyline and offers unique views of Windsor and its surrounds. Rotarians assisted with the Raffle and raised £400.

The event was organised by the Windsor Town Partnership and was attended by many representatives of the town's businesses and other institutions.                        

Duck Race Prize Presentation 15th July 2008...

The presentation of prizes for the Great Windsor Duck Race took place at King Edward's Court. The race was held to raise funds for the Windsor Christmas Lights On the 28th June thousands of ducks were released as part of the Royal Windsor Midsummer Fayre. Most were  small ducks ( 2000 ) costing £2 each and the chance to win £500. Some were British Beefeater Ducks representing local businesses and costing £25. There is a prize of a case of Wine but this is more about giving to the local community and making Christmas 2008 one to remember the great lights!

Pictured Left to Right are the organisers Rtn. David Shaw, Paul Roach and Magaret Tagg from the Windsor Town Partnership, and Rtn. Chris Clark

This years Windsor Business Duck Race 2008 was won by McDonalds, but every business that purchased at business duck will get a free page on a website. They simply need to contact Business in Berkshire on 01753 852904 to discuss their listing.

 Read more about the event here.

First prize was £500 Won by Donna Clark (third from right) from Windsor plus further prizes donated by Fenwick ( £100 vouchers), Ruff’s Jewellers, Boots, Woolworth, Molton Brown, Legoland family tickets, Woods of Windsor, Eton Travel, Lakeland, Martin Denny Management Windsor Festival tickets & £100 book vouchers from Waterstones.

President Paul's First Meeting 14th July 2008...

New District Governor Malcom Boddington chose Windsor for one of his first visits in office. The Club was hosted by the House Master of Timbralls House at Eton College in the Dining Hall of the boarding house.

The District Governor  spoke about Polio Eradication with Bill Gates - Rotary's big worldwide project. Also the fact that 30,000 children under five die everyday from preventable causes & Rotary's work to help with water, health & hunger projects throughout the World.                                           more photos

 Handover 23rd June 2008 Eton College Master's Common Room...