Things kicked off with a surprise for Tony when Past President Phil Abbott thanked Tony for his successful Presidency over the last year and handed over a large wicker basket of goodies to Tony for “service above self”.
The microphone was handed back to Tony who went on to announce several awards among our members – but we’ll write about those in a separate article later in the week. We also heard from PP Richard Kemball-Cook about some recent donations from the club, and welcomed a prospective new Rotarian who is a postgraduate student as a guest.
PP Robert Yonge then announced the winner of the Sailor Ted prize. [For those who don’t know about Sailor Ted, he’s a way that we raise funds each year for a nominated charity – read more here]. The winner was Alan Mepstead, whose guess for nautical miles travelled by Rotarians over the year was closest to the actual figure of 12,632 miles. Alan won £72 while the rest of the money raised, £288, went to Guide Dogs.
Being a President of the Club keeps the President busy – and over the past year it has also kept Tony’s wife Jane busy. She and Tony have hosted a number of meetings as well as the New Year drinks party at their home. The club gave Jane a present as a token of thanks for this.
Tony then handed over the Presidential necklace to Rosemary. She thanked Tony and stated that she is “very much looking forward to the year ahead”. Rosemary has already outlined some of her plans for the year during our recent Club Assembly. She reminded us that we are a club of many individuals and that the contributions from each-and-every-one of us are much appreciated and important for the success of the club.
Finally, Rosemary performed her first official task as President – to hand over the President Elect necklace to Maxine Blades (who will also continue to serve as our Club Secretary). Maxine will serve as President for 2024-2025.
You can read a short biography about Rosemary below:
Rosemary was born in Essex but moved to Kent when a child. She was educated at Ashford School, followed by secretarial college. She then worked in London for Lambeth Palace Library, before she joined Conservative Central Office for five years.
Later, Rosemary moved to Vienna to work for the International Atomic Agency, a United Nations specialised agency. She stayed there for a little over two years, then moved to Brussels, married, and lived there for 23 years. Both of her children were born there. After her husband’s death, Rosemary moved back to Kent in 1997, living in Waltham. She started a part-time degree course in Archaeological Studies at University of Kent, graduating in 2003.
Rosemary was elected to Canterbury City Council in 1999 and served there for 20 years. During that time she served in a number of positions, including as Deputy of the Council, Portfolio holder for the Environment and Street Scene (which included introducing new recycling system), Sheriff and Lord Mayor 2017-18. Rosemary moved into Canterbury 2021.
Rosemary was one of the first women to join our club – joining Rotary in 2009, not long after women were first admitted. She has been involved in many Rotary activities and particularly enjoys participating in Pentangular with our fellow clubs in Europe. She also ran the club’s newsletter with great efficiency until 2017. Rosemary enjoys a variety of things in her spare time – including gardening, foreign travel (she has spoken previously of some of her travels, see here and here), reading and puzzles.
Picture: Rosemary and Tony at the handover meeting. Picture credit: Rotary Club of Canterbury.
