On the 5th of September 1930, the popular magazine The Light Car published a letter from a Mr Roy Marsh which suggested “What about an MG car club?” 
On the 12th of October 1930 the first meeting of the club took place at the Roebuck Hotel near Stevenage, with over 30 MGs and their owners coming together. Roy Marsh was there, as was John Thornley who was elected Secretary of the new Club that day. A committee was formed and a date in November agreed for the next meeting, at which 50 MGs turned up for a run – the MG Car Club was well under way.
January 1931 saw the first club dinner with Cecil Kimber as guest speaker. He was ‘characteristically amusing’ and pledged to donate 50 Guineas to club funds, so it’s easy to imagine he was popular with those present. John Thornley was able to report that membership was approaching 200 already. Soon, the first MGCC sporting event took place – the Chilterns Trial – with some 50 or so MGs plugging through the February mud. W. H. Haden won but the real winner was the club as the event was a great success and the start of a long history of motorsport in the club.
By April 1933, the membership had topped 500 and both a Trials team and a Relay Race team had been formed, the latter taking part in the BRDC 500 Miles Race in September 1933 with a respectable runner-up placing. The Club continued to grow in popularity in line with that of MG cars and also with the expansion of all kinds of motorsport during the 1930s. The structure of Regional Centres came into being, extending membership of the Club across the UK.
Come 1945 and the Club was taken ‘in-house’ by the MG car Co. at Abingdon, the Personnel Manager doubling up as Club Secretary. Petrol was strictly rationed, so club motorsport was more or less non-existent but the MGCC London Centre ingeniously ran ‘rallies’ on foot using the London Underground network! Fortunately, things straightened out and the club began to grow again, such that by 1950 Russell Lowry was recruited to manage the club from Abingdon. August 1951 saw the first Silverstone ‘all-Centre’ meeting, an event which still continues today. Membership continued to grow and the first overseas Centres were formed. The Club was greatly strengthened by the initiation of a magazine circulated to all members, Safety Fast, compiled by F. Wilson McComb.
The 1960s were a golden age for the club, with a huge growth in Overseas membership contributing to a total roll of 9,000. Registers of the earlier cars were formed as a way of preserving a proud history and for the practical purposes of sharing technical information and sourcing spare parts. As the decade drew to a close though, the relationship with the parent company – first BMC and then British Leyland – lost the closeness which had previously existed with MG. BL seemed not to understand the purpose or the value of the Club and in 1969 the use of offices in Abingdon, and more importantly significant funding, was withdrawn. The Club faced an uncertain future but Gordon Cobban, then Chairman of the S.E. Centre, and others worked hard to not only plan a safe financial basis for continuing but to licence the Club name (and that of Safety Fast) from BL. Support from UK and Overseas Centres for the new structure was vital and fortunately was given freely, so in October 1969 a fully independent MG Car Club was formed, providing a basis for the club which continues today.
Along with the new offices the Club soon put in place a computerised membership database and a new PC network to run it on. Just as well, because in 1995 the MGF burst onto the scene and quickly became the fastest selling sports car on the UK market. Thanks to a close link to the MG/Rover division of BMW through a Director of the Club, we quickly gained a whole new group of members as the MGF Register was formed. As part of this closer relationship with the manufacturer once more, the Club also took on the running of the Abingdon Trophy, a speed and race championship for MGF Trophy spec. cars which proved to be very popular, introducing a whole new racing car to club racing in the UK. In 2001 this relationship strengthened as the Club picked up the high-profile MGF Cup race Championship, later again adding a fleet of MG ZRs built by MG Sport & Racing. 
Over this period, a structure has evolved with each Centre, Register and Branch of the Club electing a representative to attend a twice-yearly council meeting and there to discuss the business of the Club and elect a Board of up to 9 Directors. This Board works with the staff of the Club at Kimber House in order to provide a range of services to Club members and to organise and support a large number of high quality events for members to take part in each year.
With the purchase of the MG name and designs by first NAC and then SAIC in China, a whole new future awaits the club as cars with the MG badge are set to return to the UK soon and are on sale in China at the time of writing. The opportunity for a whole new evolution of the MG Car Club is upon us and there is every prospect that the Club, having survived and prospered over 78 years and through harsh circumstances, can once again rise to provide what members new and old want.
