The Lewis Carroll Society - Chair’s Report for 2025 AGM - 14 November 2025
Good evening, Let me begin by thanking the Secretary for agreeing to chair this AGM. Since, at the end of this mee;ng, I will be standing down as a Trustee and Chair, it seemed as good a ;me as any to hand over to one of my colleagues who will be running the Society’s affairs going forward. It seems difficult to believe that only two years ago,we were mee;ng on Zoom to discuss the poten;al winding-up our 50-plus-year-old Society. Happily, as we know, that didn’t happen and, today, I can report that we have made great strides – par;cularly over the past twelve months –progress that I very much hope will con;nue to grow and, so, further our reach to the ever-increasing, world-wide company of scholars, collectors and enthusiasts who study or simply enjoy the work of Lewis Carroll, as well as hundreds of devotees of all things Alician!
Over the last year, the Society has been involved in many events arranged by ourselves as well as those organised by others. As I reported in my last Chair’s Report, the Society had successfully acquired – at a charity auc;on to benefit Sobell House Hospice – one of a series of sculptured Oxen, ours painted by Oxford ar;st Caroline Ritson and ;tled ‘Looking for Alice’. To secure our Ox’s future, ownership was passed to the Westgate Shopping Centre, where it was formally unveiled on 27 January 2025. Trustee, Mark Davies – who was a prime mover in our acquisi;on of the bovine artwork will be presen;ng ‘Looking for Alice’ with Caroline Ritson aYer the business of this AGM. At the beginning of April, Trustees and Society members visited Christ Church Library for a celebra;on of the recently-donated Jon A. Lindseth Lewis Carroll Collec;on and to view a display of selected gems from what is an amazing hoard. The Society formally congratulated the College Librarians on acquiring such a pres;gious collec;on and extended our grateful thanks to Mr Lindseth for his generous giY to all Carrollian scholars.
In May, members paid a weekend visit to the Hampshire village of Lyndhurst – where Alice Hargreaves ( nee Liddell) lived following her marriage. Events included a talk, ‘Alice in Lyndhurst’, a guided walk and a visit to the New Forest Heritage Centre which has a related display in honour of Lewis Carroll’s muse. The 4 July saw this year’s Alice’s Day held (as always in and across Oxford) with the Society providing three talks at the Bodleian’s Weston Library: Mark Davies – who is our representa;ve on the organising commicee – talked with Caroline Ritson about the Alice Ox; Willaim Hale and Tom Duckham from Christ Church Library discussedthe Lindseth Lewis Carroll Collec;on; and LCS member, Joe Cheal, spoke about his book, Alice and the Gramophone Discovery.
An in-person mee;ng took place at The Art Workers’ Guild in London on 5 September exploring the topic of ‘Lewis Carroll and Stammering’ with speakers Vivien Grant-Jones, Speech and Language Therapist from the City Literary Ins;tute in Holborn talking about the condi;on and LCS Trustee and fellow Speech and Language Therapist (re7red) Sarah Stanfield speaking on the impact that stammering had on Lewis Carroll and his family.
During the year, under the editorship of MarkDavies, we have published four issues of the Society’s newslecer, Bandersnatch filled with news and reviews, the most recent being issue 199 – meaning that a bicentennial Bandersnatch will soon come whiffling out of the Tulgey Wood! Addi;onally, last month, members will have received the latest – for7eth – issue of our journal, The Carrollian . Edited by Jane Skelly, it offers fiYy-plus pages of scholarly erudi;on. On social media we have seen the number of people reading the LCS Facebook page more than double to an amazing 10,000 Followers. The page is your best daily-guide for all Carroll and Alice updates… About new plays (ballets, operas, musicals), films, TV and radio programmes; about new edi;ons of Wonderland and Looking-Glass and books about Mr Carroll and Mr Dodgson their lives and works. There’s also informa;on on all manner of collectables and ephemeral on-line and in-print references to Carroll characters and quotes. Plus: a weekly tribute to the work of a par;cular Alice illustrator, ar;st or craYsperson. The success of the LCS Facebook is en;rely due to the day-in-day-out industry of my co-Administrators, Alice Chapman and Franziska Kohlt. The Society con;nues its close rela;ons with sister organisa;ons, among them The Lewis Carroll Society of
North America, The Lewis Carroll Genootschap in Holland and The Lewis Carroll Society d’Italia. Mark Davies has con;nued to represent the Society by acending events rela;ng to our membership of The Alliance of Literary Socie;es. I must thank the Trustees and Officers – Secretary Steve Kimminau, Treasurer Tracy Gribble and the aforemen;oned Mark Davies (unofficial Deputy Chair and slave-of-all-work) – for all they have achieved since our last AGM, especially during my prolonged periods of illness and hospitalisa;on over the last eighteen months which severely inhibited my ability to discharge my full responsibili;es. In stepping down as a Trustee, I want to thank my fellow re;ree, Sarah Stanfield – long-serving Trustee, Commicee member and past Chair – for her dedicated service to the work of the Society over many years. AYer 53 years of involvement – man and boy – and with the experience gained while holding roles from Secretary to President and then back to Chair, I know how much is involved in running a literary society and I sincerely wish my colleagues a full measure of vision, inspira;on, stamina and endurance to keep the 56-year-old Lewis Carroll Society alive and thriving un;l she reaches her Six;eth Glorious Year and – hopefully – far, far, beyond.
If you do, then you will have much frabjous joy in sharing with others your knowledge in and apprecia;on of our beloved author and his rich literary legacy.
The Lewis Carroll Society balance sheet 2025
| The Lewis Carroll Society | The Lewis Carroll Society | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance Sheet | |||||||||||
| Year ended 30 September 2025 |
|||||||||||
| 2025 | 2024 | ||||||||||
| Fixed Assets | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Current Assets | |||||||||||
| Debtors/accrued income | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Nat West Current a/c old 574 | 11686 | 1708 | |||||||||
| Nat West Current a/c new 300 |
2074 | 0 | |||||||||
| Cambridge & Counties | 0 | 12467 | |||||||||
| HTB | 3750 | 0 | |||||||||
| PayPal | 24 | 0 | |||||||||
| Cash in hand | 0 | 17534 | 0 | 14175 | |||||||
| Total Assets | 17534 | 14175 | |||||||||
| Less Current Liabilities | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| Balance | 17534 | 14175 | |||||||||
| Brought forward | 14175 | 14622 | |||||||||
| Surplus/loss for the year | 3360 | -737 | |||||||||
| Carry forward | 17535 | 13885 | |||||||||
| Ellis Hillman Award | 0 | 17534 | 290 | 14175 |
The Lewis Carroll Society Income and Expenditure 2025
| The Lewis Carroll Society | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income and Expenditure Account | |||||
| Year ended 30 September 2025 | |||||
| 2025 | 2024 | ||||
| Income | |||||
| Subscriptions | 5293 | 4543 | |||
| Gift Aid | 0 | 0 | |||
| Donations | 161 | 1300 | |||
| Sales inc P&P | 386 | 433 | |||
| Events | 0 | 100 | |||
| Bank reimbursement & compensation | 405 | 0 | |||
| Interest | 508 | 471 | |||
| 6753 | 6847 | ||||
| Less Expenditure | |||||
| Publications & postage | 2410 | 1857 | |||
| IT | 603 | 1579 | |||
| General expenses | 25 | 227 | |||
| Meeting costs | 0 | 417 | |||
| Insurance | 142 | 142 | |||
| Emory Down plaque | 90 | 0 | |||
| ALS subscription | 15 | 15 | |||
| PayPal commission | 108 | 92 | |||
| Suspicious direct debit | 0 | 255 | |||
| Oxford Ox | 0 | 3393 | 3000 | 7584 | |
| Surplus/loss for the year | 3360 | -737 |