Hugh Collins was born in 1912 and died December 26, 1973.

The English Bridge Union in its present form may be said to have first taken shape in 1947. Gordon D. Johnstone, who took office in that year as chairman, envisaged the post-war growth of the Union and one of his first acts on taking office was to appoint Hugh Collins as the Registrar and Honorary treasurer of the EBU.

They shared a common love for Duplicate Bridge and a professional association as Chartered Accountants. Hugh Collins continued as registrar until the appointment of the present secretary of the EBU in 1955 and as Honorary Treasurer until 1966 when he retired after twenty years of loyal service during which time the EBU had grown into a body of substance.

In those two post-war decades there were few better known or better liked characters on the English bridge scene. Hugh liked nothing better than being amongst bridge players and in the early fifties the treasurer donned a second hat - that of a Tournament Director. Those of us who shared his work in that field had a high regard for his ability and no little envy of the good humor and affability with which e would always enliven the proceedings.

Although he left the bridge scene some seven years ago there are many hundreds of our members who will still remember him thus.
A goof humor and a live of life which completely disguised the fact that he had contracted Parkinson's disease at the age of seven and that he knew it to present a considerable threat from his middle age onwards.