Loncon (Eastercon)

(For other Loncons, see Loncon (Disambiguation).)

Eastercon 2, Loncon, was held in the Lord Raglan pub in St. Martin Le Grand, London on Saturday April 16, 1949 (Easter Saturday) under the auspices of the Science Fantasy Society (SFS). The Guest of Honour was Bill Temple and the committee consisted of Walter Gillings and others. The convention is sometimes referred to as Ragcon but the name wasn't used at the time and seems to have been an invention of Ken Bulmer in the advertisement for the 1957 Worldcon in the NyCon II programme book in 1956.

Preparations

The convention was announced in the first 'minor' issue of Science Fantasy News, published on February 20, 1949, slightly under two months before the convention was to take place. Memberships were 2/6 to join the Loncon Society and an attending supplement of 5/- including buffet. Attending members thus paid 7/6 (seven shillings and six pence), equivalent to about £11 in 2024. Fantasy Times v4 #4 says that UK fandom was 'Taking a leaf from United States fandom's book' in soliciting memberships of the convention society. Additional publicity came from the Operation Fantast Trading Supplement (March 1949) although it unhelpfully gave the date as April 10.

Venue

The Lord Raglan pub was sometimes described as being on Aldersgate Street although technically it's on St. Martin-le-Grand, a continuation of Aldersgate Street by another name and close to St Paul's cathedral. Historic convention re-enactors might like to note that it still has bookable rooms...

Attendees

Walter Gillings in Fantasy Review #15 put the attendance at 70. Owen Plumridge in Science Fantasy News #3 estimated 60. There is no published membership list. The following known attendees are either mentioned in one of those reports or signed a list, with the latter featuring 55 or 56 names, some very faint or otherwise unreadable:

1. C. F. Allen
2. Frank Arnold *
3. Norman Ashfield *
4. Peter B. Bell
5. Daphne Bradley *
6. Fred Brown *
7. Ron Buckmaster *
8. Ken Bulmer
9. Jim Burch *
10. Jim Cawthorn
11. G. Ken Chapman *
12. Arthur C. Clarke *
13. Vin¢ Clarke *
14. Ian Cumming
15. Ron Deacon *
16. John Dee
17. J. D. Doggett *
18. Donald J. Doughty *
19. Charles Duncombe *
20. Frank Fears *
21. Kerry Gaulder *
22. Walter Gillings *
23. Ron Gillings * ‡
24. Ernest Harmer
25. Peter Hawkins *
26. Arthur F. Hillman
27. G. G. Hillman
28. Terry Jeeves *
29. Kenneth Johnson *
30. Harry Kay
31. Ron Lane*
32. Peter Martin
33. John Newman *
34. Terry Overton *
35. Owen Plumridge *
36. Derek Pickles
37. Sandy Sandfield *
38. K. Salter
39. F. V. A. Scales
40. W. Simmonds
41. Norman Syms *
42. Bill Temple *
43. E. C. Tubb *
44. Norman Weedall
45. F. W. H. Wilkers
46. Arthur Williams
47. Adrian Wilson
48. G. F. White *
49. W. Wright
50. Tony Young *

Those marked * had been present at the Whitcon the previous year. Ron Gillings is marked ‡ as he was the son of Walter Gillings and there's no evidence he was a fan per se. We don't know for sure whether the Arthur Williams who attended was the same Arthur Williams who'd been very active in the early 1940s but hadn't otherwise been in evidence for several years. There was a Peter Martin who published an sf novel in 1946. This may have been the same person. Maddeningly, there's one person who signed both the Whitcon and Loncon lists but whose signature we can't decode on either.

The convention

Gillings said it was 'the warmest Easter ever known'. The programme ran from 3pm to 10pm and featured an update on the Science Fantasy Society, a game of 'Twenty Questions', a debate and an auction.

The Gillings report (linked below) covers the opening session of SFS business. This included a couple of interjections from 'Member Arthur Williams', his contribution in no way attenuated by him not being a member of the SFS.

'Sandy' Sandfield acted as question master for 'Twenty Questions' and small prizes were won by Daphne Bradley, Derek Pickles and Ted Tubb.

The debate addressed the question:

It is the opinion of this Convention that adherence to rigid editorial policies is detrimental to the proper development of fantasy fiction and it recommends that magazine editors should allow more scope for the free expression of ideas irrespective of their deviations from traditional taboos.

Bill Temple proposed, seconded by Arthur C. Clarke, and Harry Kay opposed, seconded by Kerry Gaulder. It 'produced some excellent impromptu addresses by all concerned, even though the original subject was sometimes neglected, if not totally forgotten' (Plumridge). At the vote the motion passed, 27 votes to 10.

The auction was conducted by Charles Duncombe, Tedd Tubb and Sandy Sandfield and raised £12 for SFS funds.

Publications

There was no post-convention report as, according to Science Fantasy News, not enough material was received.

Future conventions

Plumridge concluded his report by saying he was 'looking forward to – the "Third Annual"!' but there were no immediate plans for such, not especially surprising as this convention was put together in about two months. However there was to be no Eastercon in 1950 – seemingly nobody got around to arranging it – and the Festivention of 1951 isn't now regarded as part of the Eastercon sequence. The next Eastercon would be the London SF Con of 1952.

• Loncon Programme Book.
• Loncon at fiawol.org including links to advance publicity and transcripts of the Gillings and Plumridge reports.

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Whitcon	Eastercon	London SF Con
	1949

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