Skål History
We invite, all of you to take part in keeping the Skål history alive. We will appreciate your co-operation by adding more or less anything of interest, an anecdote or/and a photos.
It all started with these friendly people
from Sweden...........
Shortly after the inauguration of the first joint Swedish and French air service between Stockholm and Paris in 1932, a group of travel people from the French capital were invited to make an exploratory flight over the new route. The welcome they received in Stockholm led to many pleasant friendships.
Realizing the importance of closer relationships among those who strive to develop and promote both national and international travel, the men who made the flight to Stockholm determined to found a permanent organization whose primary aim would be the creation of goodwill and friendship in travel and transportation circles throughout the world.
The Paris SKAL Club was formed on December 16, 1932, with Rene Genestie as President. In April 27th-29th, 1934, twelve other clubs from five countries had been formed and Florimond Volckaert conceived the idea of uniting them into an international organization. The Association International des Skal Clubs (A.I.S.C.) was created on April 28, 1934, in the Hotel Scribe and Volckaert became its Founder President.
And then there was a Travel Club called Skål
On April 27th 1934 a cocktail was held in the Cintra Bar after which a dinner was held at the Pennsylvania Hotel.
This meal will always be remembered as a "marvellous culinary experience". Afterwards there was a reception at "Scherezade" for a glass of champagne and they were able to appreciate good music for hours.
On April 28th. 1934 the working sessions were held and it is for this reason that it is considered as the founding date. The Agenda for the meeting was as follows:
1. Study of the Statutes
2. Nomination of the A.I.S.C Committee
3. Organisation of the General Secretariat
4. Organisation of the Treasury
5. Report by the Secretary for the Skål Bulletin
6. Responsibilities of the delegates on the Committee
7. 1934 Action programme
8. Next meeting - date and place
9. Any other matters
The meeting opened at 10.15 and twenty-one official delegates were present representing eleven Clubs and two observers from London. The recently formed Copenhagen Club was absence but agreed to the decisions that would be taken.
The delegates represented Antwerpen, Bruxelles, Budapest, Lucerne, Montreaux, Marseille and Provence, Netherlands, Paris, Stockholm, Wallonia, London.
At the beginning of the meeting and as it was an "amicable" it was decided that voting would be by a show of hands and each delegation would have one vote. Florimond Volckaert read the articles which were discussed and approved. During the elections all the candidates were unanimously approved except Axel Ekstam and Honore who received nine votes each.
Camille Mathez who was elected unanimously gave his post to Axel Ekstam so that the swedish would be represented. All countries were represented on the committee and they were elected for one year with the possibility of re-election. The first committee looked like this:
President - Florimond Volckaert, Paris
Secretary General - Pierre Soulie, Paris
Vice Presidents - J. Arlt, Antwerpen, Georg Wilcek, Lucerne, Axel Ekstam, Sweden and Honore, Marseille
Treasurer - George Ithier, Paris
Press - R. Hahn, Montreux
Auditors - W.H de Lange, Rotterdam and Dr Szarz, Budapest
Of those that made the inaugural trip in 1932 only three were on the first "Comite Directeur". We will never know about the different opinions which followed but certain, important absences were noted. After the meeting they had lunch at the Athenne
The history of Skål International London
Skål International London Founded 27th November 1934
The idea of forming the Club came about in 1932 during a travel function in Paris
given Mr Roddy Waugh, Sales Manager of Imperial Airways. There, the London party
was joined by the local Paris agents who had recently returned from a highly successful
“educational” to Stockholm organised by Capt. Rolf Florman, head of A.B.A ( Swedish Airlines).
As “Skål“ was the word they all understood and had apparently been used extensively
through out the tour, the Paris party was most anxious to keep together and so the
idea of a “Skål Club” was formed.
A member of the London party was Bill Knott, who discovered that the acting-secretary
of the Paris Club was a former colleague and during the course of the evening it was
agreed that if the local Club did materialise, similar steps would be taken to form a
Club in London.
However, considerable resistance was met in London partly due to the fact that the
badge adopted was two champagne glasses and apart from a purely social get together
no other activities had been considered.
Once the Paris Club got under way, other Clubs were formed on the continent, but it
was only in 1934 when enough enthusiastic supporters were gathered together that the
first formal meeting was held in the board room of Imperial Airways at Victoria on the
16th November 1934. This was followed by another meeting at the same venue on the
27th November when the Club was launched and those who attended these meetings
declared Founder Members. They were:
J. Bamford; Air France
A. Bennett; Intourist
V. Crudge; Imperial Airways
C.A. Fisher; Pickfords
J.O. Fisher; Thomas Cook & Son
J. Wallace; Frame Frame Tours
E.I. Froshaug; Norwegian State Railways
W.E. Gilkes; Travel Topics
J.V. Howard; Thomas Cook & Son
H.R Jonckheere; Sabena Airways
A. de Jong; K.L.M. Airways
W.H. Knott; Bergenske & Co
W.S. Mars; Dean & Dawson
H. Ostelius; A.B.A Swedish Airlines
J.P. Reed; R.G. Bonsor & Co
A.C. Taylor; Thomas Cook & Son
R.W. Waugh; Imperial Airway
Mr Rast of the Skål Club of Lucerne also attended the meeting on the 27th November.
By this time the International Association of Skål Clubs had been formed and London
was member Club No. 14.
By 1939 the Club was firmly established with a membership of 250. On the outbreak
of war all activities ceased and it was not until 1946 that any steps could be taken
towards reviving the club. A meeting was held on the 6th February with some thirty five
members present. The elate R.W Waugh, who had occupied the chair at the original
meeting in 1934, found himself once more in the same position.
The membership was small in the early days, but had grown to 148 in 1946 and a year
later reach 225. A substantial advance was made during 1948 and the membership
rose to 326. A rule was adopted at the 1956 AGM limiting membership to 475, subsequently
increased to 550.
The Club arranged the A.I.S.C World Congress held in London 138 and assisted in
organising the 1951 Congress in Brighton and Bournemouth.
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Memorable Moments in Skål London History
With the up-coming World Congress in Budapest later this year (2009) Past President (2003) Don Love writes:
I bit of Skål History which may be on use to you in the Hungarian year: In 1984 Liz and I spent Xmas in Buda Pest travelling by train via Ostende and Vienna. The London Committee charged me with the task of conveying fraternal greetings to the newly formed Skål Club in Budapest and Ernst Graefen handed me our pendant as the train was leaving Victoria Station.
I met my contact, Janos Menihart ,who was the manager of the Danube Hotel who greeted me warily because the existence of the new club was treated with suspicion by the authorities and we were the first visitors from another club. He told me that there were few members compared with London (how things have changed) and they met irregularly at different locations. The London pendant was duly presented but he had none to exchange.
I remember him saying that if they sneeze in Vienna today they catch a cold in Budapest tomorrow. The Hungarians are masters of the hotel business from way back and have emerged from old political regime and come a long way in the last 25 years.
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Geoffrey Pitt reflects on his year as President in 1967 and his membership since 1949:
England had just won the Football World Cup and the much revered Captain was arranged to be my Guest of Honour at a Skål Charity Luncheon. Not having any interest whatsoever in Sport I had absolutely no idea of the background or importance of my Guest - but we seemed to get on alright.
Reggie Vance was London Secretary for a great many years. He was made a Membre d'Honneur which was, and still is, most unusual for a Skål Member who was never involved in anything Internationally.
Ken Fox was Treasurer ( later president) also for a great many years. Mick Buck and I acted as his Auditors. He wrote the accounts out in the most impeccable copperplate. Heaven help Mike or I if we dare to spoil these with our corrections. We worked from Carbon Copies, ken later transferring corrections into his copperplate before finalisation.
In the heydays of the 50s London Club's monthly lunches were held in the Ballroom of the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane. That gives some idea of what the numbers were like.
London Skål used to boast a very active Cricket Team one of whose annual needle matches was with Southampton Skål. London beat Southampton for 17 years so I (then member of Southampton ) decided to do something about this and the following year imported a couple of "ringers". When it became clear during the match that Southampton were doing unusually well a prominent London member and a Thomas Cook Manager got suspicious and started asking around about the travel background of some of the Southampton players. But Southampton were ahead of him and had equipped the "ringers" with loaned Skål membership cards. sadly, London Cricket eventually ceased. Happily Southampton still play cricket locally.
London held a function at the mighty Savoy Hotel. I was sitting next to a foreign visitor who said quietly to the waiter when the main course of roast pork arrived that he could not eat pork where up the waiter apologised and brought him a plate of ham!
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More to come .....
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Past Presidents - Skål International London
1934 Roddy W Waugh
1935 - Roddy W Waugh
1936 - Roddy W Waugh
1937 - Sir George Broadbridge
1938 - Sir Harry Twyford
1939 - Sir George Broadbridge
1946 - Roddy W Waugh
1947 - Roddy W Waugh
1948 - Jack N Bamford
1949 - G L Walter
1950 - Victor J Kernan
1951 - R A "Bob" Smyrk
1952 - Bill W Boddy
1953 - Alan R Bennett
1954 - Alan R Bennett
1955 - Henry J A Hill
1956 - William "Bill" H Knott
1957 - Sidney G King
1958 - M D Morrisey
1959 - Jack L Grumbridge
1960 - Harry G Backhouse
1961 - Ken H Leach
1962 - David. Pollard
1963 - R A "Bob" Loraine
1964 - Kelvin Harris
1965 - David G Thomson
1966 - Leonard Olney
1967 - Geoffrey W Pitt
1968 - Arthur H J Tiley
1969 - Cyril J Munckton
1970 - Edmund W Vowles
1971 - Mac A Cowee
1972 - Douglas St Croix
1973 - Colin Bourne
1974 - Ray E Bogaert
1975 - F R "Sam" Savory
1976 - Denis Newman
1977 - John Daldry
1978 - E A "Ted" Challis
1979 - Roy C Gosling
1980 - Mick J O’Brien
1981 - Ken A G Fox
1982 - H J "Roy" Baxter
1983 - Rory M Buckney
1984 - Bob E Duffett
1985 - Alan G Dunlop
1986 - Laurie Stanbridge
1987 - Ernst L Greafen
1988 - Clayton D Joyce
1989 - Dennis Day
1990 - Robert Clarke
1991 - Joan Hawkes
1992 - Ted Woodham
1993 - Janet Kevan
1994 - Ted Theobald
1995 - Kenneth Katz
1996 - Brian McLean
1997 - Brian McLean
1998 - Colin Trigger
1999 - Tony Milhofer
2000 - Paul McLean
2001 - Mats Wivesson
2002 - Bill Mould
2003 - Donald Love
2004 - Paul Follows
2005 - Janet Kevan
2006 - Janet Kevan
2007 - David Williams
2008 - Mats Wivesson
2009 - Mats Wivesson
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