The Vicar Who Banned Whist Drives

No village hall and really call itself a village hall until it has hosted a whist drive. Stalwart of local fundraising initiatives, whist drives have paid for all kinds of items, from spitfires to social outings for pensioners. Before television took over our lives, whist drives were also a reliable form of entertainment where the whole village could come together. It was a chance to win something and have a look at your neighbour’s new hat, maybe even settle old scores.

So it came of a surprise to read of one churchman’s severe disapproval of this once ubiquitous activity. In 1936, the Reverend F Donkin Roberts, a former soldier, was vicar of a village near Barnsley. It was in the parish magazine that he vented his concerns:

“I think it an insult to God’s house that its maintenance should depend upon profits from whist drives…I do not approve of any other means than free giving for maintaining the church and its services. I do not favour whist drives at all…I look on them as a form of gambling.”

He really had it in for raffles as well.

“Raffles I disapprove of entirely. They are illegal and I cannot allow any to be organised in connection with our church.”

I can’t find any trace of his parish hall now. No wonder, is there?

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