1937 Leeds Convention
The First British Science Fiction Conference was the formal name of a convention held on January 3, 1937, at the Theosophical Hall in Leeds in the UK. It is by some metrics the first convention but while it was unquestionably a convention, it was also unquestionably after the first convention in Philadelphia which was less clearly a convention.
The convention was promoted in Novae Terrae from at least October 1936 although Ted Carnell, a Londoner, said that 'many fans are suggesting that the Convention should be held nearer south than Leeds... Liverpool, Leicester, or London'. The December 1936 issue seemingly acknowledge primacy by conceded that 'New York beats Leeds in holding the first science fiction Convention, when members from the ISA in New York visited fans in Philadelphia on October 18th [actually the 22nd]' hile the supplement to that issue said, in contradiction that 'the first SF convention takes place in Leeds'.
In the December issue Douglas W. F. Mayer said
The following are but a few of those who have promised to attend:- D. G. MacRae, Director of the Glasgow Chapter; S. Johnstone, Director of the Barnsley Chapter; M. K. Hanson and D. A. Jacques, editors of Novae Terrae; W. H. Gillings, editor of "Scientifiction"; L. J. Johnson, Hon. Secy. of the British Interplanetary Society; E. J. Carnell, London Correspondent to Novae Terrae, and J. R. Fearn, author of "Mathematica", etc.
Several of these people were seemingly not in fact present. The official report said 'Approximately 20 fans or authors attended'.The word 'approximately' may be doing some heavy lifting there as there were fourteen known attendees:
- George Airey (Leeds)
- Ted Carnell (London)
- Arthur C. Clarke (London)
- Walter Gillings (Ilford)
- Harold Gottliffe (Leeds)
- Albert Griffiths (Bradford)
- Maurice K. Hanson (Nuneaton)
- Les Johnson (Liverpool)
- Douglas W. F. Mayer (Leeds)
- A. Miller (Leeds)
- J. Michael Rosenblum (Leeds)
- Eric Frank Russell (Liverpool)
- B. Saffer (Leeds)
- Herbert Warnes (Leeds), chairman
The three London fans (Carnell, Clarke and Gillings) travelled up overnight on the train, collecting Hanson along the way and arriving at 4am.
See also Which Was the First SF Convention?, Early Conventions and Rob Hansen's excellent web pages on the Leeds Convention.
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