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Tonbridge Lions Club
About the club
The current membership stands at around 45 men and women and we get together once a month for business meetings and quarterly for dinner meetings, As part of the wide and varied programme of Lions service, we have a number of fund raising and community service activities in and around Tonbridge.
Our activities include staging a nationally recognised triathlon, half marathon, 10k and 5k road runs, a popular Summer fête and the Christmas barrel organ collections. We also organise a fun day and games for less able youngsters, a senior citizens party, health checks, a school choir concert and numerous other activities within the Tonbridge community.
If you are interested in finding out more about how you can help us continue our support of the community, click here.
President 2024/26
Phil Jesson
Phil was born in Westminster and raised on the Kent/London borders where he was educated at Dartford Grammar School. He married Jo in 1982 and moved to Tonbridge in 1986.
Phil & Jo have three children, Christopher, Nicholas and Martha, all educated at Tonbridge schools and now living in Tonbridge, Maidenhead and Kennington respectively. They have two young granddaughters in Tombridge.
Phil worked in the London financial arena for 40 years specialising in Treasury markets in merchant banks for most of that time. Phil also chairs the Tonbridge District Scout Council, volunteers for the National Trust at Ightham Mote and also pursues his love of steam railways by working at two narrow gauge Heritage railways in Kent.
Phil & Jo are very much looking forward to the next two years leading the members of Tonbridge Lions Club, Lions Ladies and Friends of Lions as they continue to serve the Tonbridge Community in the Clubs’ 75th & 76th years.
Board of directors 2024/25
The current board of directors is as follows.
Lion Phil Jesson
President
Lion Mike Stout
Secretary
Lion Peter Godsall
Treasurer
Lion Gordon Hill
IPP/Greeter
Lion Keith Bourne
First Vice President
Lion Wayne Sleck
Second Vice President
Lion Graham Rapley
Minutes Secretary
Lion Patricia Jordan
Director
Lion Trevor Dalladay
Activities Chair
Lion Ken Thomas
Director
Lion Tom Simmons
Tail Twister
Lion Wayne Sleck
Lion Tamer
Lion John Dean
Activities Secretary
Charity trustees
As part of the club we manage a charitable fund. Whilst the members and board of directors are the key decision makers for how we raise funds and where those funds are distributed, we have appointed trustees who provide oversight on the funds we receive and distribute.
Lion Philip Jesson
Trustee
Lion Keith Bourne
Trustee
Lion Wayne Sleck
Trustee
Lion Mike Stout
Trustee
Lion Peter Godsall
Trustee
Lion Graham Rapley
Trustee
The early days
The summer of 1949 saw the beginnings of Tonbridge Lions Club.
During the 1939/45 war a Tonbridge hairdresser CWH Addy was often in touch with servicemen from the United States and Canada. He heard many stories about the Lions and the aims and objectives of Lions Clubs, and decided he would try to organize a club in Tonbridge.
In 1947 he wrote to the headquarters office of Lions International for advice and as a consequence was able to advise that office in 1949 that he was in contact with enough interested men in Tonbridge to form a Lions Club.
The official formation of Tonbridge Lions Club followed on the 9th February 1950, though it had been operating as a club for some months prior to that date.
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