| Dear Dorothy,
with reference to
the Horton's family enquiry about an English Club in Heliopolis,
I will hereby document, in brief, the history of the different clubs
in Heliopolis with the hope that it might put some light on
that matter:
Between the two world
wars there were only two clubs in Heliopolis, the Heliopolis
Sporting Club (HSC) and a much smaller one, the Heliopolis Tennis
Club (HTC). most of the British community, along
with the officers of the british garrison and the international diplomatic
corp were members of the Gezira Sporting Club (GSC) which is situated
just across the River Nile from downtown Cairo. Only
those few English families then residing in Heliopolis, a suburb
of Cairo, were members of the HSC and / or the HTC,
along with many foreign families living in Heliopolis.
In 1942
the
United
States sent some troops to Egypt and built a military camp for
its troops that was called Hakstep, just outside
Heliopolis.
for the entertainement of its troops, the us purchased a piece of
land, just next door to htc, where they built a spectacular olympic size
swimming pool and a modest club house calling it the
Lido Club.
It was run and management by American servicemen. After the
war the American went home and the British troops evacuated
Cairo
and settled in the (Suez) Canal Zone; both the htc and the
Lido
Clubs united into one club which took the name of the
Helio
Lido Sporting Club, and all the clubs mentioned above
opened their doors to those Egyptian families who could afford their
membership fees.
Going back to the
late Mr. Cowdrey who managed a Heliopolis Club, this club
should be either the HTC or the HSC which were in the
twenties and thirties the only two clubs in that suburb. the
HTC
being a much smaller club with a much smaller membership and budget,
chances are that only the much larger HSC could afford a british
manager.
Both the HSC
and the HTC, which is now called the Helio Lido sporting
club are still around and thriving, in Heliopolis, and are
situated, a few blocks away from each other in that part of modern Cairo
called Roxy, Heliopolis.
With my warmest regards,
|
