The Rotary Club of London, founded in 1911, was the first to be chartered outside North America, and is the premier Club in Great Britain. It held its first meeting at Simpsons in the Strand. Following on from this, a further 108 Clubs were established in London.

On 1 August 1912, the Rotary Club of London, Greater London, England, became the first Rotary club in Europe. Although Rotary had already become international in April of that year with the chartering of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the club in the United Kingdom earned Rotary the distinction of being an intercontinental organization.

After the London members organized the club, it took a year to receive its charter. Correspondence between General Secretary Chesley R. Perry and charter member Arthur P. Bigelow reveals some of the club members’ questions about joining and paying dues to what was then the National Association of Rotary Clubs, made up of only U.S. clubs.

Perry encouraged them to “forget that the word ‘national’ is in the name,” noting that if Winnipeg, London, and others were to join, the association would “simply have to change its name to the Inter-National Association.”