Norwich Rotary Club may not, in the Art Deco era, have been at the forefront of modern attitudes. Indeed, in the early 1930s a visiting member, The Rev Harold Mullett from Ponder’s End - staying in Norfolk as a locum for the holidaying incumbent at Hoveton -gave a talk to the club, bemoaning ‘the undress of boating holidaymakers and the vanity of nudity’. His views received a warm reception from his perhaps rather staid and not entirely youthful audience.
Yet, just a few years earlier a local young Rotarian, Louis Marchesi, had made a speech to his fellow members, which was to lead to the launch of a youthful and vigorous international group which set out to improve the world. Marchesi had been inspired by a radio broadcast made by the Prince of Wales (later Edward Vlll), who called for the young men of Britain to ‘sit round a table, adopt an idea, and seek to improve It’. When asked to give his maiden speech to his fellow Rotarians, members may have expected Marchesi to talk about the catering business in which he and his father were involved, but he chose instead to talk about being 27 years old, and he took as his theme the idea that, in life, there were things that we must do, things we can do, and things we should do. To this end he referred to the broadcast by the Prince of Wales and endorsed the Prince’s wish that the ‘young men of Britain should lead the way’.
Marchesi’s suggestion was that a new organisation should be formed, comprising only younger people, and without any specific religious or political affiliations but with the ambition to improve the world. The response was extraordinary – he had struck a real chord with his fellow younger Rotarians, and within a few weeks the first such group had been formed, with Louis Marchesi as its secretary and fellow younger Rotarians elected as officers. The group was launched in March 1927 in a meeting held at what is now Cinema City in Norwich but was then still known as Suckling House.
In no time at all there were over 80 members and new groups were opening locally, and further afield. The name ‘Round Table’ was quickly adopted from the Prince of Wales’s talk, as was what became – and remains today – the motto of the organization ‘Adopt, Adapt, Improve’. In 1936 the first overseas group was set up. This was just the beginning – today Round Table operates in more than 60 countries.
The springing up of such an international organisation, directly as a result of the almost ‘off the cuff’ remarks of a 27 year old to a small group of Rotarians meeting in Norwich is really quite remarkable – so was the man himself.
Erminio William Louis Marchesi (Mark to his friends) was the son of a Swiss father and an Irish mother. His father had emigrated to England to work with his uncle in a restaurant in Kent, where he met and married one of the waitresses. Having learned the ins and outs of the business, Marchesi senior decided to branch out on his own and chose Norwich, where he opened his first restaurant, at 77 Prince of Wales Road.
‘Mark’ was born in 1898, and rapidly proved himself a force to be reckoned with. His education was primarily in Norwich at the City of Norwich School, but he spent at least one childhood year in Switzerland to help support the family following the death of his grandfather. Aged just 10, and accompanied by his younger brother, the journey to the family home in the small town of Poschiavo, must have been quite a challenge. The Bernina Express Railway was still a few years away, and the necessary journey over the Pass to get there had to be undertaken in a coach drawn by four horses, on a road which took 23 years to build and was, at that stage quite narrow and frequently closed by snow.
Returning to Norwich, Mark completed his education at CNS, leaving at 16, just as the First World War began.
After working voluntarily with the Red Cross, Mark joined up as a ‘boy soldier’. The recruitment of youths was perhaps not one of the most edifying parts of the rapid build-up of the army, but until conscription came in, it was one of the most effective. Youthful enthusiasm and, in some cases. poor home living conditions led to the recruitment of an estimated 250,000 boys and youths. The minimum age for joining the army was 18, and to fight overseas 19. Yet such was the enthusiasm of some youths to volunteer, and so indifferent were the procedures for checking the real ages of applicants who added the ‘odd year’ that, after the Battle of Loos in 1915, it was calculated that almost 8% of British casualties were under the permitted age.
In Mark’s case it was a month after his 19th birthday that he set out to go to war, on the troopship SS Tyndareus, a brand new Blue Funnel Line steamship which had been requisitioned by the Admiralty immediately on completion. He had completed his training as a wireless telegraphist and had already made his mark in the Middlesex Regiment in his various sporting endeavours, being both the Regiment’s boxing and tennis champions.
He was bound for India, but didn’t make it. According to one source, the ship was torpedoed off the South African coast and Mark was able to survive exposure in an open boat by virtue of his superior fitness. However, a delve into the records of the Army Museum produced a different, and fascinating picture. In the first instance, the ship was not torpedoed, but struck a mine. Although badly damaged, it survived and carried on in service for a further 45 years, including service as a troopship again in the Second World War. On board were no less than 1,500 soldiers of the Middlesex Regiment, and – rather in conflict with the idea that it was due to Mark’s superior fitness that he was able to survive, every single one of those 1,500 soldiers lived to tell the tale.
What happened was that when the ship struck a mine the damage to the bows was so extensive that sinking seemed inevitable. The Middlesex Regiment were ordered to parade on deck, with their life jackets, where they sang ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ while waiting transfer by boats to various ships which had come to their aid, including another Blue Funnel Line vessel and the hospital ship Oxfordshire. All were safely taken ashore and no injuries were sustained despite the rough seas – an achievement which drew a commendation from King George V expressing his admiration for ‘the discipline and courage’ of the troops. The captain of the Tyndareus, rejecting an instruction to beach her as a wreck, managed to navigate her under tow to Simonstown, where she was repaired and returned to service. The parade became the subject of a contemporary oil painting, now in the National Army Museum.
Recuperating, Mark was later transferred to India, where he became ill and spent the rest of the war in hospital. He returned to England, but a year later he went back to Switzerland, on his father’s instruction, to be trained in hotel management. Training completed, he came back to Norwich and, with the help of a loan from his father opened a restaurant of his own. He was so successful that he was able to repay his father in less than a year. Father and son together expanded their business both by acquisition and by opening new outlets – Mark emulating his father by marrying a member of staff, the manageress of one of the restaurants they took over.
Not just a successful businessman, Mark was a keen sportsman, and not above playing the odd practical joke – he, reputedly, at the end of a Round Table Conference, once donned overalls and – unrecognised by delegates – started to clear up. But he should be remembered for being the inspiration for, and the founder of, an organisation which has for nearly a century provided generations of young professionals with the opportunity to serve their communities, and, incidentally, to have quite a lot of fun and companionship. It is clear that a number of voluntary local organisations have taken something of a hit in numbers both as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent tendency to work from home. Though never a Tabler myself, I sincerely hope and believe that the inherent strength of Round Table will ensure that it remains an influence for good in a rapidly changing world.
To appreciate fully the huge influence Mark had on the world one has only to be aware that the attendance at a memorial service in Westminster Cathedral after his death in 1968, had a congregation of more than 3,000.
