\n Peter Johns stood down as chairman of Eaton Golf Club in Norwich and resigned his membership after what the club described as a “discreet investigation”.\n<\/p>\n
\n In an email to members, seen by this newspaper, the club alleged: “Peter repeatedly failed to declare conflicts of interest\u00a0in relation to his role representing Eaton Golf Club within a commercial consortium. In addition, commission payments that were due to the Club were instead paid directly to Peter.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The club also told members: “Peter has now repaid all monies that were owed to the Club.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Johns was approached and the allegations were put to him in detail. However, he declined to comment.\n<\/p>\n
\n Peter Johns has resigned as chairman of Eaton Golf Club (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n The club said the 70-year-old had resigned as chairman on September 7.\n<\/p>\n
\n Its email to members said: “Peter\u2019s resignation was compelled by a unanimous vote of the Board at a Special Board meeting, the culmination of a discreet investigation that commenced in the summer earlier this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Pending the convening of a formal disciplinary hearing, Peter resigned his membership with immediate effect.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Johns, who first joined Eaton as a member in 1979, has also stepped down as secretary of the Norfolk County Golf Union, the governing body for amateur golf in Norfolk, a role he had held since 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Peter Johns (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n In the email sent to members, Eaton Golf Club alleged: “These matters represent a clear breach of the standards expected of anyone holding office at Eaton Golf Club.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The club said it had spoken to Norfolk Constabulary but that its board had “unanimously decided that the club will not pursue any further action”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eaton Golf Club was contacted for comment, but did not respond.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eaton Golf Club (Image: Simon Finlay)\n<\/p>\n
\n In its email to members, it added: “The board has already commenced work to strengthen our governance arrangements.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This will include clearer policies, improved oversight and more robust expectations of probity for all office holders.\n<\/p>\n
\n “These changes are essential to ensuring that the club is protected and that members can have full confidence in how their club is managed.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Before being appointed as chairman of Eaton Golf Club, Mr Johns served as the club’s secretary\/manager.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club said Warren Gannaway has been asked to accept the position of acting chairman until it elects a replacement.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Johns resigned from his role as secretary of Norfolk County Golf Union on September 12.\n<\/p>\n
\n A statement on the organisation’s website said: \u201cWe thank him for his service over many years in the role.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe process of recruiting his successor is now under way and we will announce the appointment in due course.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
HISTORY OF EATON GOLF CLUB<\/p>\n
\n Eaton Golf Club is one of Norfolk’s longest-established golf clubs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Its history can be traced back to a public meeting held in February 1910, which invited people interested in starting a golf course in the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n That year, the club inherited an old, corrugated-iron shed which had been used as changing rooms for polo players.\n<\/p>\n
\n The facilities were considered inadequate, so a new building was erected at a cost of just over \u00a3108, with a further \u00a359 being spent on furniture and fittings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Robert John Read, known as Jack Read, owned the well-known flour milling business at Albion Mill on King Street in Norwich.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was described at Eaton\u2019s first AGM held on January 10, 1912, as \u201cthe originator of the club\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the night of May 28, 1921, the clubhouse was destroyed by a devastating fire in which members\u2019 equipment and all of the club\u2019s records were lost.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eaton Golf Club in Norwich (Image: Eaton Golf Club)\n<\/p>\n
\n Eaton Golf Club in Norwich (Image: Eaton Golf Club)\n<\/p>\n
\n In the early hours of May 4, 1937, an RAF scouting plane from Duxford crash-landed on the course.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club later overcame a prolonged threat to its future when members fought to prevent the course being sold for development.\n<\/p>\n
\n Today, Eaton Golf Club is widely regarded as one of Norwich’s premier golf clubs, with a full adult membership costing \u00a31,365, plus a \u00a3400 one-off joining fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Johns stood down as chairman of Eaton Golf Club in Norwich and resigned his membership after what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-814717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}