Brief History of the Association

The Association was formed in 1881 as The Student Society and first met at the Mechanics Institute on the evening of Thursday 14 April 1881. Its original purpose was to help University lecturers maintain contact and interest with their students, particularly during the summer. Lectures were the mainstay of the Society right from the beginning. Since 1882 the Society and, following a change of name and rules in 1933-4, the Lecture Association has being going continuously, apart from a break during the Second World War.

In the early days Members gave the lectures but even by 1884 the occasional outside speaker was invited to give a lecture. Today all the lectures are given by outside speakers on a wide variety of subjects.

The Association membership has fluctuated over the years and in both the mid 1930’s and the 1970’s the membership was low enough to give cause for concern of the future of the Association. A lecture by Sir Ranulph Fiennes in the Centenary season of 1982-3 renewed the interest of the region's people in the Association and the Association has been able to maintain a healthy membership since then with high quality and varied programmes of lectures.

At the present time there are vacancies and new members are most welcome.