The Lions Club of Yeovil was formed in 1965 and the sponsoring club was
Bournemouth. The person mainly involved from the Bournemouth Club was
Kenneth Riley who became a Past District Governor and Past Chairman of Council.
He was a Quantity Surveyor who was friendly with Philip Cooper an Architect
in Yeovil. The first preliminary meetings were held in March 1965 at The Mermaid
Hotel and the Club was Chartered in October 1965 with Philip Cooper
being it’s first President, an office he held for the first two years.

The club meets at

YEOVIL COURT HOTEL
West Coker Road, Yeovil, BA20 2HE. Tel: 01935 863746

on the 4th Monday of the month, however on occasions this conflicts
with Bank Holidays. We have Dinner Meetings starting at 19.30 hrs.

The Club has a male only membership, currently at 21, but we would  be
the first to say that we could not exist without the support and assistance of
‘The Ladies’. Our ladies help us on most of the events we hold (see ‘Fund Raising)
and play a large part in our Social occasions (see ‘Social). Two of the original
Charter Members are still in the club and holding key officer positions.

As collectively our membership totals 530 years in Lions, with  3 of
our new  members only having clocked up four years each and one not
yet a year, it will come as no surprise that a high proportion are retired.
Being very conscious of this and finding it difficult to attract new younger
members, we were fortunate 7 - years ago to form a Branch Club,
‘Yeovil Lions Branch Club (untamed)’, (see Branch Club).

This is a club within a club with a much younger average age and is
performing well with 30 members which includes ladies.
Since the formation of The Branch Club we have had 4 new members join us.

We are therefore hopeful that this will ensure that a Lions Club will
continue to server the community of Yeovil in the future.

In 1976 we were instrumental in forming Ilminster Lions Club and
they in turn formed Crewkerne Lions Club in 1982