Book Of Remembrances

Roy Chalfont - Norwich Past Tablers 41 Club

It is with great sadness that we announce the sad passing of our member Roy Chalfont.

Roy first joined Round Table in Pinner (west London) in 1954 and in 1957 he married his lovely wife Audrey and they both loved the fun and fellowship that Pinner RT offered.

In 1962 Roy changed jobs and moved to Norwich and soon joined Norwich RT Number 1 and became Table Chairman in 1968/69. Roy was a particularly good storyteller and took immense pride in telling whoever wanted to listen, how became friends with the Founder of Round Table “Louis Marchesi” who would be a regular attendee at the Table meetings. According to Roy, Louis or “Mark” which was his nickname would often sit keeping a low profile and never sought to assert his unique position.

One of Roy’s proudest moments was in 1967 when he was the chauffeur for both Louis Marchesi, the past National President “John Watson” (From Norwich) and the Norwich Wensum and Yare RT892 chairman Harry Corry, when he drove them to London for the Fortieth Anniversary Lunch at the Hilton Hotel in London where the guest of honour was the Duke of Edinburgh and the event was attended by over 1000 guests. Roy thinks that this may have been the last time “Mark” was present at any official RT function before he died.

Sadly, in December 1968 Louis Marchesi passed away and Roy, as a friend and the current Chairman of No1, was involved the funeral arrangements and was one of the six pall bearers. This was followed by a national memorial service in Westminster Cathedral in February 1969 which Roy attended along with over 1000 others.

To help commemorate the life of “Mark” and the establishment of RT, Roy came up with the idea of a commemorative round seat (bench) to be constructed and placed in London Street Norwich opposite the restaurant that the Marchesi family had run. In 1971 the RT bench was presented to the City of Norwich and the event was attended by Louis’s family (this seat was recently replaced with one of similar design).

Roy was an organiser and was involved in organising numerous dinners and meetings including the regular past No1 chairman’s dinner which he organised every two years until recently. He loved to travel and in 1969 he was joined by other Round Tablers in their endeavours to help with the aftermath of an earthquake Yugoslavia and somehow, he managed to encourage eight fellow tabler’s to drive several old caravans all the way to Yugoslavia and leave them there for the homeless to use.

Roy was also instrumental in the setting up of the Euro One meetings where the 1st RT’s in each for the European countries would get together for a weekend of fun and fellowship and a little bit of business. The first meeting was in 1965 in Brussels and Roy and Audrey somehow managed to attend almost every meeting since, this often-involved Roy loading up his Triumph estate car and the driving many thousands of miles while others would fly. He loved the whole travelling experience and had friends all over the world. He would encourage all the Tablers he ever met to travel and meet of Tablers from around the world.

When Roy was finally ‘chucked out’ of Table he became a very keen member of Norwich 41 Club and held just about all positions available including Chairman. He was also extremely interested in what was going on nationally and was the Region 16 National Councillor for many years and loved traveling to the National conferences where he would often offer his opinion and experience.

He leaves his two children, Wendy and Stefan, and lots of lovely Round Table memories.

John Ragan, Norwich RT No1 & Norwich 41 Club Archivist and Historian.