How Did Globetrotters Start?
Norman Ford is the founder of the Globetrotters Club, which started back in 1945. He is alive and well and now lives in Texas, but is British-born.
By the start of WW2, and at the tender age of 18, he had already caught the travel bug, having cycled around the UK and youth hostelled in Ireland and Switzerland. Whilst on leave in the UK, in 1944, Norm’ together with a friend bought an old sailing boat, intending to sail around the world in it.
However, the boat needed a fair amount of work on it, so, to fund the repairs, Norm’ wrote a piece for the Daily Mirror newspaper describing the planned round the world trip and asked for two other crewmen to help sail the yacht and finance the trip..In the ensuing two weeks, he received over 200 enquiries.
As only two people were actually needed, Norm’ enrolled the rest to form the Globetrotters Club. Globe was started and the membership listing compiled, and we haven’t looked back since!