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The Club aims to promote the advancement of education at Lancaster Royal Grammar School. In addition, the Club helps Old Lancastrians to contact each other, maintain or renew friendships and keep in touch with the School.

OL Newsletter 

The OL Newsletter is the annual club publication. It is filled with news from Old Lancastrians, reports from club activities and events, updates from the Headmaster, archival material, letters to the editor and information on the forthcoming year in the OL calendar.

The History of the Club

"The gentlemen educated at the Lancaster Free Grammar School under the Rev J Widdit will dine at the Eagle and Child in Cockerham, on Wednesday the 13th day of January. Dinner at 3 o'clock. Tickets at 10/6d (52.5p) each to be had at W Minshull's.

It is requested that those gentlemen who wish to attend will have the goodness to send in their names at the Gazette Office and to take their tickets as early as possible".

The Lancaster Gazette of 8th January 1813

Originally founded in 1891, the Old Lancastrian Society remained in abeyance until, in 1913, the Headmaster and Messrs Deed and Vincent invited Old Boys to attend a Dinner at the School. The seventy who responded agreed unanimously that the Society should be revived and that HL Storey Esq, DL, JP, should be its President. The OL Club has elected its President at the AGM every year since and from the original 82, the Society increased its membership by the 1940s to over 1600, owing, in a great measure, to the work of Mr H "Dally" Douthwaite, former Head Boy and Second Master. With the help of colleagues, he also produced the Old Lancastrian Newsletter. The Society, now the Old Lancastrian Club, continues to flourish and has Branches all over Britain, the latest of which is the Scottish branch formed in 2006.

75 Years Ago (1926-27)

An Old Lancastrian tie, of broad black and blue stripes, divided by a narrow strip of cerise, was devised, and on sale at three shillings and ninepence (19p), with a silk scarf priced at thirteen shillings and sixpence (67.5p), and a blazer at two guineas (£2.10).

Dally Douthwaite recruited many School leavers to the OL Club for a life membership subscription of one guinea (£1.05), but inflation took its toll. Because of increasing printing and postage costs, the OL Club, like many other similar organisations faced with the same problem, decided some 20 years ago that "Guinea Members" would no longer receive the annual Newsletter but would retain the right to put forward to the AGM nominations or proposals. The band of guinea members has, of course, dwindled with the passage of time. 

Subscriptions 

The current subscription, approved by the AGM several years ago, is £10 pa, a painlessly small sum, especially when paid by Bankers Order, but amounting to a useful total when added to the hundreds of others. Unfortunately, approximately one third of OLs paying by Standing Order are still paying at the old rate of £5 pa. If you are one of these, bear in mind that printing and postage costs of the Newsletter don't leave much from £5 to help the school. The School would clearly benefit if all OLs were paying £10 pa. However, whatever your status, all are welcome at OL Club functions, and even more welcome to visit the School and see the changes from your day.

The subscription enables the OL Club to fulfil the aim, expressed in its constitution, of furthering education at the School by funding each year individuals or groups who present to the Committee a worthy case.  Recent grants have been approved to the 1st XI Cricket Tour to participate in the Sir Garfield Sobers Competition in Barbados, the School Team in the National Orienteering Championships, an individual Study Trip to New York and several travel grants. The Club also pays a contribution to the School for the work done on behalf of the OL Club. 

It is the Club's further aim to bear the costs (up to £10,000) of refurbishing the War Memorial Library. This very appropriately continues the tradition, begun towards the end of World War One, of OL Club involvement in commemorating Old Boys who sacrificed their lives in war. The Club's contribution helped to purchase the Memorial Field and the Memorial tablet once displayed in "Big School". The new War Memorial Library in the New Building, with its Lamp of Remembrance and Roll of Honour, which was dedicated in March 1930, owed much to OL Club funding. Again in 1948, the Memorial Fund to commemorate those Old Boys who gave their lives in the Second World War provided a Memorial plaque in the Memorial Library and money to build a Sports Pavilion on the extension to the Memorial Field.  

Additionally, the Club works hard to foster links between Old Boys and with School, made easier by the speed of modern means of communication. OLs make good use of the electronic Who’s Who, and the annual Newsletter is full of news of OLs, items written by OLs, reports on the various Branch functions and the latest news about the School and achievements of pupils. Thanks are due to Branch Secretaries who work hard to ensure the success of annual gatherings, in London, Cambridge, Framlingham, Cornwall, Manchester, Pendle, Oxford, Durham and Cirencester.  

It is hoped that School leavers who feel that they have derived benefit from their time at LRGS will join the OL Club and, in their turn, repay the School in some small way for the benefit of future pupils. 

Joe Shepherd
Former Hon Secretary of the OL Club 

Officers

Chairman: Rod Burgess (1966-1972)
President: John Lea (Staff 1960-1996)
Vice President: Brian Ashton MBE (1957-1962)
Honorary Secretary: Peter V Dyer (1968-1975)
Honorary Treasurer: P Tony Whiteway (1966-1974)
Headmaster: Andrew M Jarman

Peter Dyer (1968-1975) OL Club Secretary
Jenny Cornell (Development Director)
Tel: 01524 580 608
Tom Carter (2001-2008) (Alumni Officer)
Tel: 01524 580600 ext 296