Salad days over for Luncheon Club
After 72 years, one of Nelson’s older Institutions is no longer.
The Nelson City Luncheon Club had been active since 1944 but a drop in membership in recent years prompted members to cease activity at the end of last year.
The club was founded at the end of World War II by a group of Nelson men who were missing the comradeship of being in the forces, the National Reserve or the Home Guard.
In the hope of continuing the fellowship it was decided to meet every fortnight at a local restaurant, with many attending during lunch breaks from their jobs.
A guest speaker was usually included in the meetings and over the years the club had welcomed Governors General and ambassadors of various countries.
Membership consisted of men from the Nelson business and professional community, with good fellowship and civic pride identified as key objectives in the club’s existence.
In more recent years, women were accepted as members and welcomed its first female chair, Dame Alison Roxburgh, in 2007.
However, by the time the club celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2014, most of the past presidents had passed on and fewer people were willing to take on organisational responsibilities.
With numbers dwindling and age taking its toll, a vote of current members resulted in a unanimous decision to cease activities at the end of 2016.
Club patron and 1968 president Allan Carson is now 95 and said while there was some sadness associated with the club’s closure, there was also a recognition amongst members that the time was right to call it a day.
‘‘Like a lot of organisations it sort of run its course so it seemed like a good idea to give it a decent burial,’’ he said.
‘‘People can set up another luncheon club if they’d like and there would bound to be people who would want to got to it but it wouldn’t be like the Nelson City Luncheon Club as it had been.’’
A former RNZAF serviceman in WWII and the son of a WWI veteran, Carson was drawn by the fellowship ideals of the club.
As well as long service with Rotary, the Probus Club and as a Justice of the Peace, Carson was proud to have been a part of the Luncheon Club and what it had achieved in its time.
The club’s assets have been distributed to places like the Suter Gallery and the Nelson School of Music, while the balance of funds have — appropriately — been donated to the Returned Services Association welfare fund.
The club’s bell and gavel are now in the care of Carson.