A Brief History
of the October Wargames Association
The October Wargames Society was founded in October 1976 as a result of a restructure within the Birmingham Wargames Society, and the name October was a result of this rather than a commemoration of the October Revolution in Russia as some people believe.
The October Wargames Society was founded in October 1976 as a result of a restructure within the Birmingham Wargames Society, and the name October was a result of this rather than a commemoration of the October Revolution in Russia as some people believe.
Founder
members of the club included John Westwood, Karl Farrell, Greg Higgs, and David
Constable.
After
meeting at various venues in the first few months, the clubs first long term
meeting venue was at the Matador Pub within the Bullring complex, where they
stayed until the early 1990's. During
this period the membership of the club was restricted to 20 due to lack of space
at the venue and this resulted in membership of the club being by election.
The club
meeting night was Monday and it was therefore generally known as the Monday
Club and at that time it was almost exclusively a club playing Ancients.
Eventually
the club decided to start competing in various competitions which culminated in
winning three Worlds Ancient Team titles and leading club and leading team at
the British 15mm competitions held at Roll Call and also making large
contributions to the successful West Midlands Regional team at the Nationals
(now called Britcon).
Individual
members of the club have won many trophies from that period right up to the
present day although entry is now on an individual basis rather than as an
official club entry.
With the
redevelopment of the Bullring imminent with the consequential loss of the
Matador, the club moved firstly to the Post Office Club and then to the Bull Ring
Tavern, where we were resident for the next 12 years, a period when the club
diversified from the traditional figure gaming and started to have more board
and role playing games on its weekly agenda.
Following
a change of landlord at the Bullring Tavern the club decided to once again move,
eventually ending up at our current venue and this has seen our membership
expand from around 15 members weekly to the current level of around 80/90.
