March 31 in A.A. History

1939: Presumably using Hank P.’s car, Bill W. drove from Cornwall, New York, to New York City. He needed to secure enough money to pay the hotel bill for himself, Hank, Ruth Hock, and Dorothy S. The four had been in Cornwall correcting printers’ proofs of the book Alcoholics Anonymous [left], a slow and difficult task based on the hand-edited multilith manuscript. Together, they had only half the cash needed to cover their stay at Cornwall Inn. Bill approached Charles B. “Charlie” Towns [right], the owner of Towns Hospital, where he and Hank had gotten sober, and explained their predicament.
    Bill later wrote, “Mr. Towns was not too favorably impressed when he heard where we stood, but he came through with the [$100] hotel bill and about a hundred dollars to spare.… We all returned to New York in high spirits [$100 then is ~$2,350 in 2026 dollars].”
    Hank’s declaration that God would provide proved correct, though he likely hadn’t imagined the provision would come through Bill’s agency.

1943: The Chicago Daily Tribune reported “State to Open 1st Hospital to Treat Alcoholic Pa­tients” [left: article], saying, in part,

    A state hospital devoted to the treatment of chronic alcoholism will be opened withint a few weeks as a branch of the Chicago State hospital… It will be the first such institution in the history of Illinois.
    The hospital will be headed by Dr. Conrad Sommer, chief medical officer for the welfare department, and his staff will include members of Alcoholics Anonymous, a national group of reformed drunkards who have been successful in reforming others thru group therapy.…
    Such an experiment … has been tried at the Manteno State hospital during the last few months, with nearly twice as many released patients making satisfactory readjustments to normal life as previously.

1947: England’s first known Alcoholics Anonymous meeting occurred at 8 pm in Room 202 of London’s upscale Dorchester Hotel [right, 1931], after Grace O. [left], an A.A. member from New York City, invited several people to attend. The Alcoholic Foundation had requested that she contact individuals in Britain who were seeking information about A.A. The previous Saturday, the 29th, she had met an alcoholic known as “Canadian Bob” at a restaurant on Dean Street in London.
    Attendees at the Dorchester meeting included Grace, Robert “Canadian Bob” B., Chris L. B. (likely the first person in England to achieve sobriety through the A.A. program), Sgt. Vernon W. (an American soldier), and Norman Rees-Watkins (from South Croydon, who was still drinking at the time). Some sources also list additional attendees: Pat F. (from London), Ward Williams (an American), Tony F. (an Irish airman), “Flash” W. (an American), and Pat G. (a female member from California whom Grace had met on her voyage from New York to London).
Bob later recalled the Dorchester meeting:

    It was Grace O. who really triggered off the inception of AA in England. She had written to me before she and her husband, Fulton, embarked at New York on one of the Queens. During lunch in London, her husband and I mapped out on a Saturday plans for a meeting the following Monday. Eight of us met in her hotel room, the last night of March 1947 and the five Londoners chose me as Secretary.

    Subsequent meetings were held at Canadian Bob’s home [right, c. 1946] on Mortlake Road in Kew and in various cafés.

1954: In a letter to Jack Alexander, Bill W. wrote, “The whole A.A. Tradition is, in a sense, the result of my gradual adjustment to reality.”