Cape Town Lions Club

History:

Lions Club of Cape Town – founded in 1957: Lionism in Southern Africa started when Past District Governor Ed Peckhan (from UK) met with a business acquaintance Commander Peter Keeble in Cape Town. Lionism was discussed at length; at a further meeting in September 1957, in the Mayor’s Parlour, it was decided to form a Lions Club in Cape Town.

On 14th October, the first Southern African Lions Club was established with (the then) Mayor Colonel John Billingham as the Charter President and 28 other men. Jack Stodel was the first member to join in Southern Africa. The Lions Club of Cape Town was officially chartered on 5th December 1957. Lionism now penetrated the southern tip of the African Continent and the 79th country had entered the field of service.

Those first lions were active in service but also quickly spread Lionism throughout South Africa, East London was the second Lions Club formed on 12th December, in January 1958 Lionism spread to Johannesburg followed 3 weeks later by Port Elizabeth within the year 20 clubs had chartered including Salisbury in (then) Rhodesia making Rhodesia the 100th area in the world to embrace Lionism.

Lions Clubs International is the world's largest service club organization with more than 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world.