In 1922, US Rotarians ran an attendance contest with an unusual condition: the losing clubs would join together to give the winning club a prize. The Rotary Club of New York City won, and Immediate Past President Arthur Chadwick of the Rotary Club of London presented them with a bell.
The bell carried real history. During WWI it served on the auxiliary warship Patrol No. 20, mounted on a frame built from oak salvaged from Admiral Nelson's HMS Victory.
Chadwick hoped the bell would sound a clear note of goodwill in its new home and stand as a symbol of the friendship between London and New York Rotarians. Accepting on behalf of New York, Past President Raymond Knoeppel described how the bell's soft tinkling on its final ocean crossing had been cheered as a message of true Rotary brotherhood.
The bell has represented something else since: order, discipline, and the steady rhythm that guides members through their weekly meetings, much as it once did at sea.
