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The Harbour Carnival will be gracing the seafront once again this year, and it is being organised by the Guernsey branch of the Round Table.
The longstanding club has been supporting Guernsey’s community for decades, from developing Rondel House to the launch of the ever-popular Round Table Christmas Fayre.
So who are the Round Table and what exactly do they do?
The genesis of the Round Table as we know it today fell out of a want for a Rotary Club that included younger people.
In 1927 the founder of the Round Table, Erminio William Louis Marchesi, identified that a lot more work could be done to support various communities around the United Kingdom, and he said this could only be done through the inclusion of younger people.
The age range was therefore set between 18 and 40 (although this has since been extended to 45) and hundreds of ‘tables’ popped up across the British Isles and further afield.
While some believe the name originates from Arthurian legend, it actually comes from a speech made by the Prince of Wales in 1927 at a British Industries Fair.
The emblem itself is a representation of a table which hangs in the Great Hall in Winchester.
The first President of Guernsey’s Round Table was a man called C.A Travers, who led the first Guernsey branch from its inception in 1949 to 1950.
Roy Bisson is a former member of the Guernsey Round Table and now presides over the ‘41 Club’, a group of Round Table members who’ve aged out of the organisation.
He said the Guernsey Round Table was very popular after the war and had its “heyday” in the 1980s.
“We would say that the Round Table changed our lives radically – this is what the group can give to its membership.”
Over the decades since its inception the group not only organises the Harbour Carnival, but the Round Table Christmas Fayre and it continues to raise money for dozens of local causes.
During my work with the Round Table I learned that Le Rondin school owes its inception to the group. The Guernsey Round Table built Rondel House at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and this eventually evolved into Le Rondin school. Le Rondin... Round Table.
This year is the Guernsey Round Table’s ‘charter year’ and it is celebrating a 75th birthday.
The Round Table says it believes in “bringing about change and excellence in ourselves and the community”.
The group does this by meeting regularly and planning events for the ‘tablers’ and the community. By bringing young men together the Group says it allows for the sharing of ideas that can benefit the individual as well as the community they live in.
“We have a lot of members and they find the Round Table is a really good thing if you're new to the island,” said the current President, Oscar Webber.
He said the group can be a fantastic way of socialising in a new place.
“It's a really good community of people you can instantly be friends with and it does a lot of good charitable work.
"It's something that you can quite comfortably feel you can be a part of.”
This year’s Harbour Carnival will take place on 23 August and the Group is still calling for people to sponsor the various events.
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