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The Tillsonburg Shrine Club is entering its 76th year.

The Tillsonburg Shrine Club Development

1943 to 1972

Written by – W.J.M. Hart

The following is an attempt to show the growth of our Shrine Club from its earliest days to the present.

During the summer of 1943 the following local Shriners (whose names appear below, in alphabetical order) met at regular intervals, in the offices of the Tillsonburg Shoe Company, where Noble Walter Gibson was superintendent. The factory was located on the land now occupied by the I.G.A. Grocery and Parking Lot on the east side of Broadway Street.

The following twelve local Shriners of that time were the nucleus of the neophyte Club which Noble Walter Gibson named Si-Cho., after Sick Children’s Hospital. This name has actually stuck with the Club, but now we are better known as the Tillsonburg Shrine Club.

The original “disciples” of the Shrinedom here were as follows: Nobles Bill Addison, Colin Brown, Stan Carle, Roy Crandall, Jim Fergusson, Walter Gibson, Harry Grant, Tom Mansell, Harry Payne, Earl Stroud, S.S. Williamson and Alvin Wilton. Every one of these Nobles played his part in promoting and bringing into reality, the fine Club which we are al so proud to belong in 1972.

The Club Charter was obtained by December 1943, and the first official meeting of the fledgling club was held in the Shoe Factory on December 6, 1943.