Loncon
(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. The GoH was Bill Temple. The committee was Walter Gillings and others.
The convention was first announced in the first 'minor' issue of Science Fantasy News, published on February 20, 1949, slightly under two months before the convention. Memberships were 2/6 to join the Loncon Society and an attending supplement of 5/- including buffet. Attending members 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.
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. Historic convention re-enactors might like to note that it still has bookable rooms...
Known attendees:
- Frank Arnold
- Norman Ashfield
- Peter B. Bell
- Daphne Bradley
- Fred Brown
- Ron Buckmaster
- Ken Bulmer
- Jim Burch
- Jim Cawthorn
- Ken Chapman
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Vin¢ Clarke
- Ian Cumming
- Ron Deacon
- John Dee
- J. D. Doggett
- Donald J. Doughty
- Charles Duncombe
- Frank Fears
- Kerry Gaulder
- Walter Gillings
- Ron Gillings *
- Peter Hawkins
- Arthur F. Hillman
- G. G. Hillman
- Terry Jeeves
- Ken Johnson
- Harry Kay
- Peter Martin
- John Newman
- Terry Overton
- Owen Plumridge
- Derek Pickles
- Sandy Sandfield
- K. Salter
- F. V. A. Scales
- W. Simmonds
- Norman Syms
- Bill Temple
- Ted Tubb
- Norman Weedall
- F. W. H. Wilkers
- Arthur Williams
- Adrian Wilson
- G. F. White
- W. Wright
- Tony Young
Ron Gillings 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.
There was no post-convention report as, according to Science Fantasy News, not enough material was received.
There was no Eastercon in 1950, and Festivention isn't strictly an Eastercon, so the sequence continues in 1952 with the London SF Con
| Whitcon | Eastercon | London SF Con |
| 1949 |
| This is a convention page. Please extend it by adding information about the convention, including dates, GoHs, convention chairman, locale, sponsoring organization, external links to convention pages, awards given, the program, notable events, anecdotes, pictures, scans of publications, pictures of T-shirts, con reports, etc. |
