Saturday, August 07, 2021

WHY BRIGG CLUB'S CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS ARE IDEALLY TIMED


A Brigg club was disappointed when a period of Government-imposed Coronavirus emergency lockdown meant it could not (late last year) celebrate the 100th anniversary of the club's foundation.
Brigg & District Servicemen's Club, on Coney Court, which can trace its legal formation back to December 1920, re-timed the centenary celebrations to Saturday, August 28 this year when an evening concert will be held featuring the Blighty Belles singing group.
However, Brigg Blog's inquiries have now unearthed information which shows this date could hardly be more suitable.
Charles Ernest Taylor (1896-1990), was a founder member. And we have located his original membership card - dated early September 1921 and stamped 'Brigg & District Service Men's Club - British Legion Branch.
This suggests a time delay of some months between the administrative foundation and the club getting up and running.
While living in the Happy Land courtyard, off Bridge Street, Charlie volunteered and served with the Lincolnshire Regiment during the First World War, being  wounded in action in 1917.
He was demobbed as a sergeant and held the same rank with Brigg's Home Guard during WW2.
Employed by Layne's Garage on Bigby Street, he became one of the first council house tenants on newly-built Hawthorn Avenue in the early 1930s.
His Servicemen's Club membership card was passed down in the family; Charlie being our grandfather (on mother's side) and we looked it out yesterday (Friday) to check the all-important date.
Towards the end of his life, we used to enjoy taking him for an afternoon pint at the Servicemen's Club where the long-serving secretary, Norman Leaning, welcomed Charlie as an original member.
There were few other survivors living in Brigg by the late 1980s.
Tickets for the centenary 'do' on August 28 are now on sale, and we think some still remain.
They cost just a fiver and that includes a buffet. Inquire at the bar or call 07745 722113, but don't delay.
Brigg Blog will be attending and raising a glass in memory of the card-carrying founder members from 100 years ago.

Singer Emma Ramsden will be performing at Brigg & District Servicemen's Club today (Saturday, August 7), from 8.30pm. Guitar/vocalist Dean Fox will be at the Lord Nelson tonight. Free admission to both gigs.

PICTURED: The Blighty Belles who will be performing at the 100th anniversary event later this month; Charles Taylor's membership card; Charles (fourth from right) on mid-1960s Remembrance Sunday wreath-laying duty at the Monument war memorial with Servicemen's Club secretary Norman Leaning (extreme right); and a Coney Court view of the Servicemen's premises where the original entrance was located.