George Marshall, nephew of General Sir Frederick, became president and he continued to allow members use of ‘the fishing rights wherever his property abutted the river on condition that they conserved those rights.’ The committee was fully aware of the need to nurture good relations with riparian owners and considered it a ‘very valuable privilege’ to be allowed to fish local waters at no charge to members. In fact, in 1906 the only water that the society rented for a fee was the river adjacent to the Unstead Sewage Works. The rights there belonged to Godalming Borough and the cost to the society was a token one shilling (5p.) per season.

Not only did members continue to fish the River Wey but competitions were also held at Broadwater, Busbridge and Shillinglee. Most seem to have been pegged affairs although it is probable that the roving competitions held on Wednesdays, first instituted in 1898, were still being fished during the early years of the last century. Although it is unclear, these mid-week competitions may have been started for the benefit of shop owners and possibly their staff to allow them to fish on their afternoon off, when the shops and banks In Godalming closed at 1 p.m. Several of the committee members had High Street businesses including Edward Stedman, a wine and spirit merchant, and J. Wright, a baker, who was the society’s collector of subscriptions, a role which today would be called ‘membership secretary’.

In 1902 Edward Stedman, the chairman and vice-president, instituted a challenge cup as a prize for specimen fish. At the AGM that year he reported that ‘for the past two years no prizes had been taken, although a large sum had been offered in money. He supposed that members had not been animated by a desire to weigh in, because the prizes were in money, and he would like to see that altered.’ It has to be remembered that, at this time, the majority of members were business men or professionals who probably considered that fishing for cash was very working class.

Edward Stedman’s prize was first won in the 1902-1903 season by Alfred Lindsey for a perch weighing 1lb 12oz, which had been caught ‘early in the morning.’ This fish was obviously not caught in a competition and the Surrey Advertiser’s report on the event was, perhaps, the first to show that members’ fishing was not confined to competitions. The angler was reported as saying that the lack of specimens weighed in ‘was not for the want of trying, and a great deal of patience had been spent down at the riverside. The children came round one, and there was no chance of doing much unless they had some private waters.’ The prize also included a silver medal engraved with the winner’s name. Over the years the society presented a number of silver medals and it would be interesting to know if any of them have survived.

Even in those days the committee were already well aware of the importance of advertising to maintain and increase membership. They used the window of J. Wright’s bakery in the High Street to display the prizes. This would not only attract new members but the committee hoped that it would act as a reminder to existing members who would ‘take the opportunity of paying their subscriptions to Mr. Wright there, and thus save him the trouble of calling upon them’.

In 1907 the Society moved its headquarters from the Sun Inn to the Railway Hotel situated at the junction of Bridge Road, Chalk Road and Meadrow. Walter Hoar, the landlord of the Sun, had been the Society’s treasurer since its establishment in 1881 but he died January 1900. His place was taken by Alan Hoar, presumably Walter’s son.Alan Hoar remained as the Society’s treasurer until he resigned at the AGM in March 1906 ‘in consequence of leaving Godalming’. The new landlord of the Sun may not have been keen on retaining the Society’s facilities, so a move was made to the Railway Hotel.

During the early 1900s the sanctity of the Sabbath was beginning to be challenged throughout the country. Godalming Angling Society members had never fished on a Sunday, the only day of the week when most people were allowed a day of rest. In effect this barred most working class inhabitants of Godalming from taking part in the sport. Pressure was mounting for a change and the matter was now regularly raised at committee meetings and at the AGM. At the AGM in 1908 ‘a discussion took place as to allowing Sunday fishing, but the general feeling appeared to be that this would be detrimental to the interests of the Society’. No doubt the detriment was the possibility that the rigid class divisions of the time might be breached as a result.

At the 1909 AGM Sunday fishing again got the thumbs down although the newly elected Vice-President, Frances Barlow, a solicitor, said that ‘he did not suppose anyone would object to their fishing on Sundays for their own amusement, but they would be ill-advised to start any competitions on Sunday, and their society would suffer severely if they did so.’ ‘This appeared to be the general feeling [of members],’ reported the Surrey Advertiser, ‘and the matter was dropped.’ So the status quo was to be preserved, although Frances Barlow’s statement is probably the first time that reference was made to pleasure, rather than competition, fishing as part of the Society’s activities.

At the AGM in 1910 Sunday fishing was again on the agenda. One member, Mr Crouch, was obviously concerned that a specimen fish caught whilst pleasure fishing on a Sunday could not qualify for prizes such as that instituted by Edward Stedman in 1902. ‘He moved that members be allowed to weigh in on a Monday fish caught on Sunday,’ reported the Surrey Advertiser.  ‘Working men had no other chance, and the Guildford Society and London Societies weighed in on a Sunday,’ he continued. ‘Mr Waters objected to Sunday competition, and did not think that the society would flourish for very long if they allowed it,’ continued the newspaper report. Another member announced that he would leave the society ‘if we are going to have Sunday fishing for prizes.’ Mr Scott ‘thought that working men had plenty of opportunities of fishing’ but he did not say when. Mr Crouch’s motion was defeated. Change would come gradually and unannounced during the 1920s and 1930s.

Conservation and fisheries management were very much on the Society’s agenda during the Edwardian period. At the AGM in 1902 Edward Stedman was again elected as chairman, a post which he had held since the formation of the Society in 1881. He hinted that he would have liked to have stepped down when he said prophetically that ‘he would be very pleased if the committee would for the future elect their own chairman, leaving him [as] a sort of water manager’. The Surrey Advertiser reported occasionally on the society’s ad hoc restocking programme. In 1902 ‘Mr Webb’s pond was cleared out’ and ‘and a large number of fish taken into the river’. In 1907 the river was again restocked when ‘Mr Rowcliffe’ gave permission for fish to be removed ‘from his pond at Hall Place’. This would have been the estate of that name between Hascombe and Cranleigh not Hall Place, Shackleford, now Aldro School.

Present day members have access to superb quality fishing thanks to the highly skilled management of the Society’s waters during the last forty years or so. The weight of prize-winning specimen fish before the First World War shows clearly the advancements that have been made since in the quality of fish, coupled, no doubt, with improved tackle and methods. For example, in 1911 the best carp weighed in at 3lb 2oz, the best pike was 6lb 1oz, for chub it was a 2lb 5oz specimen and a roach of 1lb 1oz took the species prize. However, the heaviest trout, which weighed in at 4lb, would still be considered a very good fish today.

As the current of jingoism and national pride carried the country towards the maelstrom of a ‘war to end all wars’, the Surrey Advertiser’s reporting of the society’s activities becomes increasingly limited. During the war period the newspaper is understandably concerned with other matters and there is no mention of the society at all. We have no idea how members fared during this period and it is not until a committee meeting held on 27th Feb 1935 that we have any record of members who gave their lives during the war. At that meeting it was proposed ‘that a trophy be purchased in memory of three old members killed in the war: Ralph Harvey, Jack Harvey & M? Hazel’.

The Harvey brothers were sons of Christopher Harvey, a High Street baker and confectioner and at the AGM in 1910 Ralph Harvey had been voted onto the committee. Interestingly, he was serving in France as a sergeant in Lord Strathcona’s Horse, a cavalry regiment of the Canadian Army, when he was accidently killed on 1^st March 1917. He is buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, France. John, known as Jack, served with the Royal 1^st Devon Yeomanry during the doomed offensive against the Ottoman Turks at Gallipoli. He caught a fever at Suvla Bay and never recovered, despite making it back to England. He died in Bristol on 27th January 1916. He is buried in the Nightingale Road Cemetery, Farncombe. The Harveys also lost a third son, Ralph, who died fighting with the Australians during the Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917.

‘M? Hazel’ is something of a mystery. He may not have been a Godalming man and by 1935 members of the committee were unable to be certain of his first initial. Twenty-six servicemen with the surname ‘Hazel’ died during the First World War, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, but none had the first initial ‘M’. Extensive further research would be required to find out if any of them had Godalming antecedents. Eighty-five servicemen with the surname ‘Hazell’ also died during the war, one of whom had the first initial ‘M’ but with no obvious involvement with our town.

The town lost 281 men with Godalming connections during the First World War, which has been calculated as representing nearly 15% of the town’s males between 18 and 40 years of age. After peace came in November 1918, the military remained very much in evidence in the town. Until the autumn of 1919 huge army camps on nearby Witley and Milford Commons continued to house around 20,000 Canadian soldiers waiting impatiently to go home. There were confusing times ahead, when for some angling would become a welcome distraction from their bitter memories.