History
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Sir Denis Wright succeeded Clive Bossom as Chairman in 1976, being followed three years later by Sir Roger Stevens, like Wright a former ambassador to Iran. Sadly Stevens died after less than a year in office. Max Tagg, a retired member of the BBME, was elected in his place.
A meeting in Tehran in 1966 of the Inter-Parliamentary Union was attended by a number of British MPs including the Speaker and Sir Clive Bossom, the son of the Society's late President. This led to useful contact with the Anglo-Iranian Parliamentary Group in Westminster, members of which - Agnew, Bossom and Peter Temple-Morris - duly became officers of the Society. After the death of Lord Bossom in 1965 the Society's link with the House of Lords was maintained through its next three Presidents - Lords Shawcross, Carrington and Runciman. All three kindly acted as hosts at the summer receptions at the Upper House as Peter Temple-Morris has since done at the Commons.
Without a regular and attractive lecture programme the Society would never have survived. Great credit is therefore due to a succession of Hon. Lecture Secretaries and their assistants who, from the late 1950s onwards provided members in all but the summer months with a wide range of evening lectures, mostly of high quality. Along with Peter Avery, a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and University lecturer in Persian Studies, two names stand out - those of Ronald Ferrier and Paul Gotch. Both spent several years in Shiraz, the former teaching English at Pahlavi University, the latter as British Council representative. On returning home they devoted much time and energy to the Society's lecture programme - Ronald Ferrier for ten years and Paul Gotch for a remarkable twenty-two years before retiring in 2000.
The Society was also fortunate to have, during the 1960s, Mrs Denise Wontner as its Social Secretary. Energetic, with excellent contacts and a love of Iran, she arranged a crowded programme of visits and social occasions as well as an annual dinner, the last taking place in November 1978 when Lord Carrington presided over a gathering of about 500 at the Savoy Hotel. By this time membership had reached an all-time high of nearly six hundred.
Two particularly memorable occasions during those halcyon days were the Society's receptions at the Guildhall for the Shah and Shahbanou in March 1965 and in the Crush Bar at Covent Garden attended by the Queen Mother in April 1976 for the Shahbanou after a performance of the Royal Ballet. The Guildhall reception cost £1,024 and caused the Society to sell some of its small portfolio to meet the bill! Since then, thanks to increased subscriptions, occasional profits from dinners and receptions and wise investment, the Society's funds have been in a sound state.
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