GEORGE WILSON
If there is one man who most members today might have heard of but know very
little about, it has to be George Wilson. Who was George? He is the man who was
responsible for posting the letter to The Stage newspaper which requested that
anyone interested in the late George Formby should get in touch, with the hope of
creating a Society to remember the great man. Therefore the letter that George
posted makes him the founder of the Society.
The reason for our failure to recognise George Wilson is because basically other
than the letter that he placed in The Stage, very little is known about him. He had
the magnificent thought in “let’s start a society to remember the name of George
Formby” and before the Society had completed its second year, he was gone!
MECHANISM IN PLACE
Many members may think that the Society was born when the people who
answered George’s letter travelled to Blackpool for the inaugural meeting in
September 1961 but the mechanism was already rolling in the shape of a set of
newsletters that went out to all those who answered the call from The Stage ad. I
am led to believe that there was in actual fact, four newsletters although
unfortunately I have only been able to uncover one of them.
During the period when the Stage advert was placed and before Saturday, 16
September 1961 when the founder members met in The Imperial Hotel in
Blackpool, the core of the George Formby Society was already in place with a
President in the shape of William Logan, a custodian of sound archives in Kevin
Daly and a Secretary in George Wilson.
BILL LOGAN
Bill Logan obviously contacted
George Wilson after reading
George’s letter and they both
attended the Beryldene auction
which took place between 20 - 22
June 1961 at the Formby residence
at 199, Inner Promenade,
Fairhaven and in fact Bill
Logan purchased various
items himself, on behalf of
the Society. In those days
the fledgling Society had no
money so Bill made the
auction bids on behalf of the
society with the intention of
giving the items to the
society when they had the money to pay for them.
Bill stated that ”George Wilson rang me asking for his help with
some kind of memorial. I said he could count on me - and my wallet
too.”
Bill carries on, “Within a month of George Formby’s untimely
passing, work was already under way to gather together every
available asset that could be found in the matter of records, music,
tape recordings, material items, scrap books, photographs and not
least of all – the support of all the other people whose knowledge
and help could be enlisted to ensure the success of the cause.
AUCTION NEWS
Within two months came the news that “Beryldene” and its contents
were to be placed at public auction and whilst a great deal of
controversy had raged on this particular subject the Society, whilst
neither being responsible for, nor giving its approval to this state of
affairs was, never the less, able to take advantage of the
development and acquire for its archives a great many items which
would not have otherwise been available, and we were indeed proud
to have them on display at the Blackpool meeting.”
RESIGNATION
The very first Vellum magazine was issued in October 1961 with George Wilson listed on page 2 as
“Hon Secretary.” When the next issue arrived through member’s letterboxes in November 1962,
page 6 carried a statement which read, “It is with regret that the Editor has to advise you of the
retirement from office of our erstwhile Secretary, Mr. George A. Wilson. George, unfortunately, finds
it impossible to donate as much time to the Society as its work requires and merits, and has been
reluctantly compelled to withdraw from his secretarial post because he feels, in conscience, that he
can no longer do justice to the work in hand. He will, of course, continue as a full time member of
the Society.”
George’s name still appears as Hon Secretary in the December 1961 issue and the first issue of
1962 in February but by the next issue in October 1962, our very own John Walley was in place as
General Secretary and George was now listed as Southern Secretary.
George was still “Southern Secretary” in the January/February 1963 issue but after that, nothing!
There was no further reference to who actually managed the Society within the next few issues and
by the beginning of 1964 the Society must have been experiencing serious issues as no Vellum
magazine appeared at all and the next official issue was June/July 1965.
Within the “lost” period, John Walley came to the rescue and single-handedly issued five newsletters
which kept the membership notified of all that was happening within the Society.
BACK ON COURSE
By July 1965 the Society was back on course again, and whilst there have been some ups and
downs and a few minor crises to test the resolve of the GFS over the years, the Society these days
is well established and is now actually older than George Formby!
No matter what members in those days might have thought, and although George Wilson was a
member for only a very short time, it is without doubt that we all owe the man a massive debt of
gratitude for his inspired idea. It also has to be said that we owe an even larger debt of gratitude to
people like Bill Logan, Kevin Daly and particularly John Walley for embracing so enthusiastically
George Wilson’s dream so much that the Society today is still thriving and still very much in the
public eye.
George Wilson
Founder of The GFS
Would anyone interested in taking part in a
meeting with reference to forming or arranging
something in commemoration of this
outstanding entertainer please contact
George Wilson
Letter to The Stage…
GEORGE WILSON
From left to right - WILF FORREST, GEORGE CHEETHAM,
GEORGE WILSON & BILLY HARTLEY
TWO OF THE FOUNDER MEMBERS
JOHN WALLEY
DAVID HAMER
Sufficeth to say that the society was officially born and we couldn't wait for the next
meeting to be held the following March at the same venue, the Imperial Hotel. Blackpool,
on the first anniversary of George's death.
Everything was there in March 1962 George' ukes, films, a terrific photo display, lots of
enthusiasm, but no George Wilson! No explanation was given for his non-appearance. We
had no secretary to run the Society and so Yours Truly was elected - a post I held for the
next I I years. In the six months from September 1961 to March 1962, it seems there had
been furious rows between Bill and George about the ownership of the ukes.
They were legally Bill Logan's, bought and paid for with his own hard-earned money, but
George Wilson wanted some guarantee that they would eventually be owned by the
Society, with Bill to be paid back when Society funds allowed.
No way! They were Bill's! True, he made them all available at each meeting and we
played them whenever we wanted. but this was not what George Wilson had envisaged.
So the founder of the GFS was never seen again! It was as simple and as stark as that.
When I first met George Wilson, I rather liked him. He was a genuine Formby fan. full of
enthusiasm but no match for Bill Logan!
John Walley wrote about George in The Vellum in the Spring 2000
issue…
LETTER EXTRACTED FROM THE VELLUM
THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE VELLUM - OCT 1961
BILL LOGAN