Whitcon

Whitcon, the first post-War British convention, was held on Saturday May 15, 1948 in the upper room of the White Horse pub in London, UK. It was retroactively declared the first of the Eastercons even though it wasn't at Easter. Earlier conventions, some of which were at Easter and one of which was even called Eastercon, aren't regarded as part of the sequence. It was officially organised by by John Newman, in practice assisted by Walter Gillings and others. The guest of honour was A. Bertram Chandler.

Preparation

There is no record of any advance publicity for the convention. If progress reports were issued none have been traced. It's also unclear if there was a membership fee. There is no record of one and according to Newman, 'G. Ken Chapman gave (calling it a loan but refused to accept repayment) money to arrange things and be certain of covering the expense of the buffet and hire of the upstairs room at the White Horse' (quoted in Then).

Venue

The White Horse pub in Fetter Lane had been the weekly meeting place of London fans since April 1946. The fans would move on in 1953, following popular landlord Lew Mordecai to The Globe, nearby in Hatton Garden. The White Horse was closed and boarded up around late April or early May 1989 and subsequently demolished.

Attendees

One report talks of 'about 60' attendees. There is no list of members but Rob Hansen has identified 51 people named in contemporary reports or signing the list of attendees, making Whitcon the largest UK convention up to this point:

1. M. E. Allen
2. Frank Arnold *
3. Norman Ashfield
4. W. W. Baker
5. Sydney Bounds *
6. Daphne Bradley
7. Fred Brown
8. Ron Buckmaster
9. Jim Burch
10. Ted Carnell *
11. Irene Carnell
12. A. Bertram Chandler
13. Joan Chandler ‡
14. G. Ken Chapman *
15. Joan Chapman ‡
16. Hal Chibbett *
17. Arthur C. Clarke *
18. Vin¢ Clarke
19. Jimmy Clay
20. Ron Deacon
21. W. Alan Devereux *
22. J. D. Doggett
23. Donald J. Doughty
24. Charles Duncombe
25. Mrs R. Duncombe ‡
26. D. J. Fabian
27. Frank Fears
28. Kerry Gaulder
29. Madeline Gillings ‡
30. Ron Gillings ‡
31. Walter Gillings *
32. Peter Hawkins *
33. Eric C. Hopkins *
34. Terry Jeeves
35. Kenneth Johnson
36. Peter Knott *
37. D. Landman
38. Ron Lane *
39. F. C. Newman
40. John Newman
41. Terry Overton *
42. Owen Plumridge
43. Sandy Sandfield *
44. Norman Syms
45. Bill Temple *
46. Joan Temple ‡
47. E. C. Tubb
48. E. J. Webb
49. G. F. White
50. Eric C. Williams *
51. Tony Young

There is arguably a fifty-second attendee as there's one signatory on the list of attendees that's indecipherable. Ron Lane's attendance is a bit of a guess as it's based on a questionable interpretation of a signature in the Whitcon Booklet. Names marked * are people known to have attended at least one pre-1948 convention, only 15 of them although Carnell, Clarke and Gillings had all been at the first British convention in Leeds in 1937. Names marked ‡ are the wives, or in the case of Ron Gillings the son, of known fans and it is not thought at this time that they were themselves fans per se. Daphne Bradley, as is constantly noted, was the only female attendee who wasn't married to one of the other attendees. The list of attendees is also 'signed' by 'George Whitley', a pseudonym of Chandler's. In a piece called 'The Whitcon Report' published in Fantasy Times V3 #9 (September 1948), Jack E. Quinn – who wasn't there – provides an often misspelled list of attendees 'extracted from the Whitcon Booklet'. This includes L. L. Fiebler, F. C. Herman and A. Lane, all names seemingly derived from misinterpretations of signatures in the booklet. There is no evidence otherwise that these people exist.

The convention

Whitcon was nominally to be held just on the evening of Saturday 15th, but fans, mostly from the London area plus a few from elsewhere in Britain, arrived earlier. The early arrivals were taken to London bookshops by locals in the afternoon and then went for tea at Lyons Corner House around 5 o'clock (when else?!) before moving to the White Horse for the main event, which started at 6:30 and had to vacate the pub by 10:30. The Whitcon Booklet gives "May 15th 16th" at the cover, but Sunday included only an informal stroll, possibly to be followed by a visit at Newman's: "John turned up at Kew Gardens with Syd Bounds and Sandy Sandfield - had he known his entourage could have been increased 100%, for Vincent Clarke, Daphne, and Speedy [unidentified] turned up, but could not find the others".

Gillings, who chaired the session, talked about the difficulties publishing prozines in the UK, and said that his Fantasy (1946–7) had folded because of the paper shortage. Ted Carnell reported the collapse of Pendulum Publications which stopped publication of the fourth issue of New Worlds (also 1946–7, revived in 1949). Arthur C. Clarke resurfaced and talked on sf and astronautics. He pointed out that the British Interplanetary Society once been a basically fan organization, but now perhaps only only twenty percent were fans. Ted Tubb was the auctioneer, selling easily everything (sent a. o. by fans who could not attend, "as did several generous fans in the States" – the unavailability of US publications due to currency restrictions was a bad problem then) except Ziff Davis prozines, producing about $70 (sic?!). Nearly $50 of the proceeds (after deducting expenses) were voted for the Big Pond Fund. Lt. Ken Slater couldn't attend because of duties in Germany, but he sent two pounds "to buy all the Whitcon attendees a drink, so, before attacking the running buffet, the meeting hurriedly broke up to drink Ken's health". Dave Newman also spoke. The only unmarried woman at the con was Daphne Bradley.

Ted Tubb later credited the success of the event to John Newman and called it a 'remarkable achievement' that so large a gathering was assembled. He did though concede that 50 was 'hardly representative of of the vast majority of lovers of science fiction' and called for a national organisation.

It's ironic that Eastercon didn't start on Easter. Compiling the canonical, ordinal list of past Eastercons in 1971 (when knowledge of even so recent fanhistory was still not at its strongest), Peter Weston began the series with Whitcon (naturally enough, as it launched a new tradition in a new era), although it could also have begun with the very first 1937 Leeds Convention, the original small 1944 Eastercon , the following 1949 Loncon which actually was at Easter, or the 1955 Cytricon which was the first natcon after the permanent move away from Whitsun.

Publications

Only after the con, "a Whitcon Booklet containing articles, comments, and information about the Whitcon and Anglofandom" was published. It was followed by Whitconzine (PDF), an 18-page, mimeographed collection of conreports and other reprinted material, published by Ken Slater's Operation Fantast for the BFL ('what this meant in practice is not clear', according to Rob Hansen).

Future conventions

There were no immediate plans for a follow-up. The 1949 Loncon would not be announced until February.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

The gathering (brainstormed by John Newman) that marked the postwar revival of congoing in England. It took place 15-16 May 1948, over Whitsuntide weekend, at the White Horse tavern in London. Nearly 60 fans attended, including Gillings, Carnell, ACC, Bill Temple, and Bertram Chandler. New Worlds was declared folded (ending the last surviving English prozine), and a cooperative company was planned to take it over.

• Whitsun 1948 at fiawol.org; contains photos and HTML versions of the Whitconzine, The Whitcon Booklet, John Newman's Whitcon Report (Fantasy Advertiser Vol. III No. 2 (July 1948) ) and Fantasy Times' Whitcon Report" (by Jack E. Quinn, 'As extracted [i. e. summarised] from the Whitcon Booklet'; #69, September 1948, PDF. This latter document should be treated with caution because names are often misspelled.)

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first	Eastercon	Loncon
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