The Lions Movement was started in 1917 in Chicago by  Melvin Jones.

Melvin was, then, the owner of an insurance agency and was involved in a number of business circles who promoted the financial interest of their own membership. He decided that some of the energies and talents of these business circle members could be put to use in helping the poor and less fortunate people in the local community, so at his invitation, delegates from a number of business circles and men's clubs met in Chicago to lay the groundwork for such an organization and on June 7, 1917, Lions Clubs International was born. Melvin gave up his insurance agency to concentrate on Lions Clubs International from its Headquarters in Chicago.

Since that time Lions organizations have grown to over 1.4 million members in over 45,000 clubs and is the largest organization of its kind.

As you can well imagine, any organization of this magnitude would need some sort of hierarchy to maintain its smooth running.

The Lions Clubs International H.Q. in Chicago serves several Multiple Districts worldwide. This includes our own Multiple District which is known as MD 105. This is made up of 13 Districts covering the British Isles and Ireland with a total of  approximately  900 Clubs.

Our own  District, known as District 105 BN, covers an area that includes the counties of Lancashire and Cumbria and also the Isle Of Man. The District also includes parts of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and parts of Cheshire which are north of the Mersey. There are a total of 53 Lions Clubs in our District. The District is organised into zones consisting of between six and ten Clubs in each zone.

Each individual Club is autonomous in its administration and operation, the accent being on service in the local community, but in the case of disasters such as Tsunami, earthquakes, etc. all the Clubs make their contribution to the Lions Clubs International effort to provide help via the Districts and Multiple Districts.

Clubs are made up of members from all walks of life with varied talents skills and experiences.

We are able to tap these skills to help in serving our local and global communities.