The Chairman of the Central Association W. E. Ginger ARPS showed the Permanent Collection of the CA on 17th January 1951 and Lancelot Vining came on 10th January to talk about "The Miniature Camera".

Council decided on 7th March to revive the wartime rule in the case of a member called up for National Service that his subscription liability be waived during this period. No doubt Mr Winsor was very grateful.

The AGM on 30th May 1951 saw an increase in membership to 116 but the Club was in deep financial trouble with expenditure exceeding income by over £20 and rent of £35 unpaid since May 1950. There was no support to increase the subscription to 25/-and the extra finance was to be raised from the sale of some War Loans and Saving Certificates from the Club's assets, valued at £136 .

There was a contested election for President between N. L. Coult, (30th October 1935), G. A. Dean (20th March 1947), and R. Ede (4th December 1946). G. A. Dean was elected. Stephen Whitaker ARICS Treasurer since 1929 did not want to stand for re-election after 22 years' service and J. J. Taylor (7th November 1945) was elected. R. S. Hatfull (9th February 1949) was re-elected Hon Secretary. Members obviously felt that with resumption of peacetime activities the over 100 membership should be given an opportunity to hold an administrative office and the prestigious one of President should not become that of "Perpetual President" as in 1903. Again they enacted the rule "The President shall not hold office for more than two successive years and shall not be eligible for re-election to that office until the expiry of three years from termination of his tenure of office".

The Certificate of Membership of the Club to the Central Association of Photographic Societies was received but has since gone missing never to be seen again! The Spackman Award for Composition was given to R. S. Hatfull and the McLaren Progress Award to D. F. Carmichael. Reference was made to H. C. Harpur who had this month completed 50 years' membership.

Outings were revived on a Sunday. There were "loud and prolonged protests on the choice of a Sunday and a vote was taken with the surprising result that only one members preferred a day other than Sunday"! Contrary Croydon?

This outing on 24th June to Crowhurst Place - had 19 members in four cars. "One member went by motor bike but was reported missing on arrival of the main party and was not seen again until the following Wednesday". Croydon's outings usually ended up either being lost in toto or losing members en route as the author can personally testify on more than one occasion.

The new President G. A. Dean was faced with an immediate problem as the Hon Secretary R. S. Hatfull was being moved out of the district and would not be able to attend regularly and the Rules of the Club had no provision for the appointment of a Secretary in mid-term! So in a complicated move the Assistant Secretary resigned and was appointed Competition Secretary and Aubrey J. Williams (joined 3 Nov 1948) was appointed Assistant Secretary and acted in that capacity until appointed Hon Secretary at the AGM in 1952.

To render the Bar profitable beer went up to 10 l/2d, Guinness 1/ld and spirits l/6d.

The Exhibition in future was to have four sections - Pictorial Prints, Other Than, Monochrome Slides and Colour Slides. Bronze medals and certificates were to be awarded but Silver medals and the Silver Exhibition Cup were discontinued as inconsistent with Club policy - "The Promotion of Photographic Knowledge Generally".

Any "Set Subject" to be determined as "being within reach of members' modest equipment bearing in mind most of this photography is taken whilst on holiday and they had neither the time nor money to spend in search of some special type of subject".

On 14th June C. S. Spackman offered a second Bronze Medal for "Architecture" and a fund was set up to make a suitable presentation to Mr Whitaker for his services as Treasurer from 1929-1950. The Minutes contain no record of what this presentation was, nor is there any appreciation noted from the recipient. The author is left with the feeling that this is yet another resolution by the Club that came to nowt.

There was an outing to Cowden on 4th August in which "a number of locals were persuaded by a 'pint of the best' to adopt various poses in the landscape to satisfy future judges who required the 'inclusion of a figure in the composition'".

Such an arrangement with locals was far safer than the author's experience of dressing in suitable garb and posing as an old tramp for the benefit of fellow members and then entering the pub with them for a drink, only to be unceremoniously dumped outside by the landlord saying "We don't have the likes of you in here". I was thrown out again when attempting to re-enter to get members to verify I was not a tramp! I ended up bruised but with free drinks by way of apology — but members still didn't want to know me!

On the outing to Albury on 25th August the rarely-used 400-year-old Chalice was shown to the Club. The report stated "As on previous outings during this wretched summer, a sky which was rarely anything other than the colour of slate hung over the Party all day". Not much photography, about one exposure per member.