According to the first (1980) edition of 'Chinese Hand Analysis' the 'Presidents' of the Cheirological Society were as follows:

1899-1935 Katherine St Hill FCS (Head Tutor)
1935-1958 Henry Barr FCS (Head Tutor)
1958-1962 Ven Fa Tao Meng (Head Tutor)
1962-1973 vacant office
1973-1977 Shifu T Dukes FCS (Head Tutor)
1977-1978 Joseph Bulaitis (Head Tutor - T Dukes)
1979+ Ursula Jaquin (Head Tutor - T Dukes)

Whether or not Katherine St Hill was the president of the Chirological Society until 1935 is a very debatable point. The main activities of the original society ceased around 1901, after which time they no longer had the support or interest to produce The Palmist's Review, their monthly journal. Beryl Hutchinson reports that there was certainly some activity in the Chirological Society after the First World War, she herself having contact with society members at that time, and it would seem quite likely that some activities of the society continued through to at least the late 1920's. Katherine St Hill's last book was published in 1927.

However, Beryl Hutchinson also reports that the society completely faded out during the Second World War (see 'Your Life in Your Hands' p248). Together with Noel Jaquin, she founded the Society for the Study of Physiological Patterns (SSPP) in April 1945 and became its president for most of the 1960's and 1970's. The SSPP was to become the most active handreading group in England during this time and, certainly, if there had been any active Chirological Society members around during the 1950's and 1960's, Beryl Hutchinson would have known them. Indeed, if that society had still been going it would not have been necessary to found the SSPP at all! It is interesting to note that Terry Dukes was a member of the SSPP during the 1970's, at the time when he broke off to found his own Cheirological Society.

The uncertainties regarding the truth of Dukes' assertions multiply to infinity by the time we get to 1958 and the advent of the 'Ven Fa Tao Meng'. Fa Tao Meng, also known as 'Otomo', was allegedly an Okinawan monk and a master of karate and Terry Dukes claims him as being his 'most important teacher' in handreading, yoga, karate and Buddhism. However, all of the stories that Terry Dukes has told about this man are lies. 'Fa Tao Meng' is an entirely fictional creation!

However, even Dukes' own written accounts of this man are sufficient to suspect the dates he gives above. Sometimes he asserts that 'Fa Tao Meng' came to Europe in 1954 for five years; at others he says he met him in 1960 (or 1962) and that he returned to Okinawa in 1965 (or 1967). All the various dates given for this mysterious man are, in any case, not at all consistent with the dates given here. 1958 is presumably chosen as the beginning of the reign of 'Meng' as Cheirological Society president simply because the mythologies of Terry Dukes' groups usually puts 1958 as their starting date within Great Britain. By that token, the assertion that Henry Barr was president until 1958 is completely arbitrary.

It is worth remembering that, if these dates for Henry Barr are true, Terry Dukes was only twelve years old in 1958. If he did study with him whilst Barr was Head Tutor/President as Chinese Hand Analysis claims, then it was whilst he was still a young boy; in which case the value of anything he may have learnt from him has about as much worth and significance as that which he allegedly learnt from his maternal grandmother.

In a letter of June 1986, Dukes says that Barr was the president of the Cheirological Society until 1967, at which point he became his successor - not 1973 as he wrote in Chinese Hand Analysis. The 1973 date accords with his residence in Cambridge but does not agree with his own statements that he founded the Cheirological Society in 1976. Somehow he became president and head tutor of the Cheirological Society three years before it was founded and six years after he had already been named as successor!

Of course, in No-Nonsense Handreading (1978) it says that Terry Dukes was president for the 'year' 1975-76 - not from 1973-1977 as he writes in the first version of Chinese Hand Analysis written only two years later! Again, according to No-Nonsense Handreading, Jo Bulaitis was not the president in 1977/78 and, since Ursula Jaquin became president in that year (not 1979 as Chinese Hand Analysis has it), presumably Bulaitis was never actually president at all!

It is amazing to see how Terry Dukes has such problems remembering events that only occurred as recently as two years previously; what does that say about his capacity to remember events further away in time than that? Moreover, what skill and ability in research is shown by someone who does not refer even to his own publications with regard to just basic and simple pieces of 'factual' information?

In conclusion, we can summarise the 'history' of the presidency of the Cheirological Society as follows:

1899-1935 Katherine St Hill FCS - these dates are wrong
1935-1958 Henry Barr FCS - contradictory dates are given - this is a fictional person
1958-1962 Ven Fa Tao Meng - this person is a product of a fevered imagination
1962-1973 vacant office - these dates cannot be so
1973-1977 Shifu T Dukes FCS - CS was not founded by Dukes until 1976!
1977-1978 Joseph Bulaitis - Bulaitis was not president in these years, if he ever was at all
1979+ Ursula Jaquin - this date is wrong; in any case, Mrs Jaquin has never studied hand analysis, has never had any functional role within the society and only lent her name to the society reluctantly. Her 'role' within the society was as 'Honorary' President only.

With such inaccuracies and errors even within such a simple list as this it is hard to have confidence in the accuracy of anything else Terry Dukes may say about the 'traditions' of Buddhist handreading in which he claims 'mastership'. For instance, the initials 'FCS' after several of these names stand for Fellow of the Cheirological Society which is: "granted to practitioners who demonstrate ability of the highest quality in all aspects" (NNHR p69). Although it is an honorary diploma, it is only granted to members "who have shown exceptional skill and expertise or who have rendered indispensable service to the society" who have been members of the society for at least ten years (CS coursebook). By 1978, only two years after he founded the society and created this diploma, Terry Dukes was claiming this title for himself and awarded it retrospectively and posthumously to Katherine St Hill and 'Henry Barr'.

There was no such system of diplomas in the original Chirological Society.