2017 marks the 40th anniversary of our regular Society Lunches. We were of course originally a dining club and, prior to the 1960s, ONs had met at the Mikado Café on Long Row Central in the Old Market Square for combined lunches and talks. There had been one attempt to revive the tradition in 1968, but that occasion at Daybrook House was not a success.
In 1977 Jack Britton (1922-28) created a new midday event for ONs, starting at the Commodore on Nuthall Road. The venue varied, as well as the frequency, until Jack finally settled on Beeston Fields Golf Club, where he and a number of other ONs played. The location was ideal, numbers grew, and lunches became a regular fixture again.
Jack was gathering ONs together in the former family home of Albert Ball VC (1907-10) until 1999. The baton then passed on an interim basis to Jim Sadler (1938-49) and for a further ten years to John Napier (1944-49). The organiser for the past seven years has been Bill Oldham (1944-54), who receives regular bookings from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and... Arizona! Society members have also attended during visits from London, the South Coast, Scotland, France and Switzerland.
BFGC is still providing great hospitality and the 125th Lunch has been arranged for 21st September, together with dates in January, May and September 2018. With the Society going from strength to strength, early booking is advisable!
The old pupils’ society of a major public school in the North of England achieves attendances of 20-40 for similar occasions. January 2017 saw more than 90 ONs enjoying lunch together at Beeston Fields. If there were national league tables for such things, Jack, Jim, John and Bill would have put this delightful Society event close to the top.
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