Camberley 41 Club

From Santa floats and soapboxes to social media - the survival story of a club that refused to fade away.

In the early 1980s, Camberley Round Table was a formidable mixture of energy, enterprise and enthusiastic hospitality. Around 40 young men met fortnightly for dinner, banter and ambitious plans to raise money for local causes. Miss two meetings and the Chairman might come looking for you - possibly with a diary and a stern expression.

The Santa Float toured for at least ten evenings each Christmas, reinforced by long supermarket collections. But Camberley wanted bigger ideas. Members joined neighbouring clubs for the Rowlock Rally, a 30-mile Thames relay on anything that floated, and the Ascot Rally, raced in homemade soapboxes. They also launched the Camberley Half Marathon and staged a 24-hour cycle challenge on rollers in the Army & Navy store window. Thousands guessed the final mileage, with Eurovision winner Dana announcing the result.

At its peak, the club raised about £12,000 a year - roughly £60,000 or more in today's terms. The money bought a minibus for an old people's home, specialist equipment for children with severe disabilities, medical equipment for Frimley Park Hospital and around 120 Christmas hampers each year. It also funded a specialist wheelchair for a local boy selected to represent England in an early Paralympic competition.

By the late 1980s, however, commuting, mortgages, longer working hours and shared family responsibilities were making Round Table membership harder to sustain. Local clubs began closing and Camberley followed. The 41 Club, once replenished by a steady stream of retiring Tabler’s, suddenly had no feeder clubs. Numbers fell, fundraising shrank and dinner venues became less glamorous. The low point was surely scampi and chips, carried two baskets at a time through winter rain to a damp room above the Lakeside squash courts. Fine dining it was not.

In 1996, Chairman John Lillicrap proposed a radical solution: admit suitable members who had never belonged to Round Table. This was then firmly against National 41 Club rules. After a lively debate, the motion passed narrowly and a few guests were discreetly welcomed. National capitation was not paid for them, and the club kept its rebellion quiet. Fortunately, the newcomers proved alarmingly normal. They took on fundraising, programmes, speakers and chairmanships - and helped save the club from extinction.

Camberley campaigned for the national association to become open to non-Tablers. When the rule finally changed, the club could declare its true membership, pay the full capitation and rejoin regional and national life without having to behave like a small Surrey resistance movement.

The revived club returned to what it did best: helping locally. It supplied tents and sleeping bags to the Hope Hub, paid rent for the Besom food bank and supported Surrey Heath organisations assisting older people and families. Members volunteered as drivers for Camberley Care and made an especially deep contribution to Step by Step, which supports homeless young people. They provided marketing, governance, financial and civil-engineering expertise as the charity grew from one terraced house into a nationally respected organisation operating across Surrey and neighbouring counties.

Fundraising has evolved too. The Santa Float remains, joined by charity concerts and a barbecue at Aldershot Army headquarters with more new ideas to come. Recognising that neighbouring 41 Clubs faced the same membership pressures, Camberley helped create a local network that shares meetings, social events, fundraising and golf competitions. Larger combined audiences also make better venues, food and speakers affordable - never underestimate the organising power of a decent dinner.

Communication has moved on from whispered rebellion to websites and social media. https://camberley41club.com Camberley's website links with its Facebook page and reaches community groups, charities, residents' associations and local news platforms. The club has more than 250 followers, while individual posts regularly reach over 2,000 people.

Today, Camberley 41 Club has around 40 members, slightly more than half of whom were never Tablers. It is again active locally and nationally, still raising money, sharing fellowship and searching for worthwhile causes to support. Its journey has been energetic, precarious, occasionally acrimonious and often very funny - but, after more than four decades, the happy ending is that the story is still being written.