Croydon Camera Club
Croydon Camera Club

Croydon Camera Club History: 1890-2000

1965—1967
Sir George Elected

The AGM in May 1965 had S. G. Pickford elected as President who made a valiant attempt to get meetings started on time but with not much success. The two changes of venues and a change of meeting day caused membership to drop to 130 - a loss of 40 in four years.

On 5th July Sir G. Pollock who had been awarded his Fellowship of the RPS received the customary cake from the previous Fellow Chris Corn.

Mention must be made of an outing to London Docks on 24th October 1965 for what members then saw they little knew would disappear for ever within 20 years. Towards the end of the year a Sunday morning TV programme on photography had our own member Alan Richards ARPS giving his views on the subject.

Mrs M. Marshall was awarded her ARPS on 20th December 1965 and became the first lady member to win this distinction. The AGM on 23rd May 1966 saw a further drop in membership to 119 and a repeat attempt to get meetings to start on time. Despite over 100 members there was difficulty in getting prints to represent the Club at "away" competitions, which difficulty led to the Club giving notice of withdrawing again from the South London Federation.

Back to "The Studio" 1967

By mid-June 1966 members were complaining of the noise from other activities within TocH which was interrupting the enjoyment of lectures and so it was with much pleasure that the Club was able to move back into The Studio as from 2nd January 1967 at a rent of £123 were annum with an assured tenancy for at least three years. This arrangement was negotiated by Harold Stillwell with Miss Spackman who took over the running of the Studio after her mother's death on 3rd September, when it also became apparent that the Corporation's plans for compulsory purchase had been shelved.

With a change of venue a Special General Meeting was called to decide the day to meet and Thursday was proposed but defeated and Wednesday would be the day as from 1st June 1967 when the Summer Syllabus commenced. For the Winter the programme would continue on Mondays.

The Exhibition awards were under scrutiny and members were asked if they would prefer medals to be abandoned in favour of some other form of permanent token.

As soon as we were back at The Studio, the Bar Licence was renewed in June and a tea urn purchased with plastic cups.

Harold Stillwell became President at the AGM on 22nd May 1967 at which the subscription was increased to £3 as the change of premises and the penalty of terminating the lease with TocH showed a trading loss of £32. Membership however had slightly improved to 123.