The History of the 1913 Wilderness Club

In 1913 younger members of the Surveyors Institution felt somewhat superior to the older members as they had qualified by examination, rather than by experience and wished to establish a group identity as a mark of this difference. Council gave permission to hold a few annual meetings for Junior Members by examination, under a certain age limit.

With the outbreak of War normal committee procedures and the age limit were suspended and the Committee remained in office until 1919. In October 1919, at a dinner at The Farmers Club, The 1913 Club was formed, primarily for ‘keeping together Members of the Surveyors Institution who were or had been interested and taken an active part in the Junior Organisation.’ The first chairman was John Ryde.

In 1931 a club for young quantity surveyors was formed under the patronage of John Theobald. It was very successful and flourished up to the Second World War, but it was not reconstituted thereafter. Younger quantity surveyors still felt the need for their own club and so they approached the 1913 Club and, with their consent, adopted their rules as a basis when they formed the “The Wilderness” in 1950. The name arose from the desire to encourage those who were in the “between” stage.

The purpose of both Clubs was: to keep together members of the RICS who had been actively involved in the affairs of the JO/JO Quantity Surveyors; to continue associations made during JO days; to increase interest in the JO by discussion and furtherance of matters of interest to the profession and the Institution and to encourage support of the Benevolent Fund of the Institution.

In the summer of 2000 the two clubs merged to form “The 1913 Wilderness Club”.