A (short) history of the Friends
"The history of the Friends of Magdalene Boat Club goes a bit like this: While I was captain of boats there was general chat amongst us all, especially between myself and Francesca Zino (Ladies Captain with me) about trying to find sponsorship and make more of the possibilities of involving the old members.
We had a member of the club called Ed Mitchell, who was a member of the SCR. He had done his first degree at Pembroke, Oxford. He explained that Pembroke had a very successful Friends of Pembroke Boat Club, (with I seem to remember around 500 members!). This then formed the blueprint for our starting the MBC Friends, so its genesis can be attributed to Ed primarily. He obviously gave us some starters for the approach taken - a large membership paying a comparitively small subscription to make things as inclusive as possible.
As part of the process of setting things up I, as Captain, spoke with Tom Anderson about his involvement with running the original Association and obtained his blessing to give things a new lease of life under this new title.
Ian Wakeford, as treasurer of the club at the time, myself, Francesca, Tony Hanscombe and others set about creating bank accounts, newsletters, mailings, dinners and so on. At this point Lady Calcutt was asked whether she would like to be formally made patron of the Friends, given her unswerving support of MBC, which she obviously agreed to.
This is a very brief off the cuff resume of how the Friends came about."
(If anyone feeld there is more to add then please contact me to fill in the gaps - ed.)