Meeting the mayor of Wakefield

This is a re-enactment of a picture taken in 1995 (see below)

President Malcolm with The White Knights and two past National Presidents, Geoff King and Frank Bull meeting the Mayor of Wakefield and displaying the commemorative plate that celebrates the founding Conference of the Association in Wakefield.

The caption to the 1995 photo was
"Chairman of Wakefield 41 Club, Richard Kendall, presenting the plaque to the Mayor of Wakefield."
(Included are a young Andy Waite and David Weaver plus National President David Sharp)

In the book '60 years of 41 Club' by Alan Wilkinson written for our Diamond Jubilee, you will find the following:

"While Blackpool in 1995 provided the usual fun and frolics - only more so, given the special nature of the occasion - one of the more thoughtful moments in the Jubilee Year was provided when a plaque was presented to the Mayor of the City of Wakefield to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of that first Association meeting in 1945. The presentation was made on the exact same date, 13 May, by a deputation including the Wakefield Chairman Richard Kendall, Yorkshire’s Regional Councillor David Weaver, the Association’s National President David Sharp, and Chairman David Slater, who would become Wakefield Chairman in the Jubilee Year.

Two delightful coincidences attended this commemoration. David Slater was the grandson of the Mayor of Wakefield who had addressed the first Association meeting at its inaugural Supper all those years ago. And the Association’s Golden Jubilee year was further blessed with the accidental discovery, in Wakefield, of the club’s original Attendance Book dating from 1943. Inside, amazingly, were the signatures of everyone attending that first meeting at Holmfield House, an account of the inaugural supper, and the signed menu card. How appropriate too that this remarkable and invaluable find should be written up by retiring Archivist Eric Miller - his hundredth contribution to the magazine. A remarkable fact about the sixteen who attended that first gathering is that no fewer than six of them later became Presidents of the Association. They were Messrs Kaye, Shaw, Shuter, Smith, Wellings and Wainwright. Also present was Harry Clayburn, who made and presented the Association’s block and gavel, which is still in use. Holmfield House, it is worth mentioning, is now a Travel Inn." (David Addison - Honorary Archivist)