Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in

Article Talk

Read Edit View history

Search

The Other Club

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages
Deutsch
Franais

The Other Club is a British political dining society founded in 1911 by Winston Churchill and F. E. Smith.[1] It meets to
dine fortnightly in the Pinafore Room at the Savoy Hotel during periods when Parliament is in session.[2] The club's
members over the years have included many leading British political and non-political people.

1
2
3
4

Contents
History
Members
References
Further reading

History

[ edit ]

Churchill, who in 1910 was Liberal Home Secretary, and barrister and Conservative MP F. E. Smith had not been
invited to join the venerable political dining club known just as The Club. Although both had friends in it, the members
thought Churchill and Smith too controversial. So they established their own club, to be called by contrast "The Other
Club".
The initial membership was 12 Liberals, 12 Conservatives, and 12 "distinguished outsiders" who were not in politics.
With the help of David Lloyd George (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) another non-member of The Club, they put
together such a list and the first dinner was on 18 May 1911. The Chief Whips of the two parties were co-secretaries of
the club, so that pairs could be arranged, meaning members dinner would not be interrupted by divisions in the
parliament.
Twelve rules were written for the club, mostly by F. E. Smith, and they were, and are still, read aloud at each dinner.
Churchill claimed to have contributed the last,
12. Nothing in the rules or intercourse of the Club shall interfere with the rancour or asperity of party politics.[3]
although the so-called Birkenhead school ascribes this to Smith. In any case debate was indeed vigorous, and
Churchill insisted on attending even at the height of The Blitz in 1940/41.

Edit links

Election to the club depended on Smith and Churchill believing members to be "men with whom it was agreeable to
dine". After Smith's death in 1930, Churchill became practically the sole arbiter and election was the greatest honour
he could confer on those he considered both estimable and entertaining. Both those characteristics were required, so
that many he considered estimable, but not entertaining, were not elected. That included Lord Woolton, Clement Attlee,
John Anderson and Lord Halifax.[4]
Anthony Eden was invited to join, but declined since he disliked dining clubs.
Charles Wilson, created Lord Moran, was Churchill's physician for many years and in the late 1950s asked outright to
be elected. This was surprisingly forthright, and Churchill felt that he couldn't hurt the doctor's feelings by refusing.
After Churchill's death, Moran published a controversial book Winston Churchill, the Struggle for Survival which
offended Churchill's friends for discussing matters normally confidential between a doctor and patient. The members of
the club thus asked him to resign, though he himself saw no reason to do so.
Churchill met Aristotle Onassis in the south of France and became such friends as to elect him to the club, to the
astonishment of other members.
The club continued after Churchill's death, but there has been no executive committee since 1970.

Members

[ edit ]

The membership over the years, as John Colville put it, reads like an index to contemporary British history. In 1997 The
Times published a list of people whose names appeared on the club's January 1994 List of Members.[5] These were
(joining dates in parentheses):

Sir Antony Acland (1984)

converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com

Edward Adeane (1981)

Earl of Airlie (1986)
Lord Aldington (1971)
Lord Alexander of Weedon (1993)
Lord Amery (1960)
Lord Annan (1989)
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster (1973)
Paddy Ashdown (1991)
Lord Barber of Wentbridge (1971)
Tony Blair (1991)
Tom Bradley (1976)
Sir Leon Brittan (1984)
Gordon Brown (1991)
Duke of Buccleuch & Queensbury (1971)
Sir Robin Butler (1991)
Viscount Camrose (1954)
Lord Carr of Hadley (1970)
Lord Carrington (1962)
Sir Edward Cazalet (1984)
Paul Channon (1973)
Lord Charteris of Amisfield (1969)
Winston S. Churchill (1993)
Kenneth Clarke (1993)
Robin Cook (1993)
Viscount Cranborne (1981)
Dr John Cunningham (1984)
Lord Dacre of Glanton (1978)
Sir Robin Day (1981)
Sir William Deakin (1961)
Duke of Devonshire (1960)
Lord Egremont (1986)
Lord Gilmour (1973)
Lord Goodman (1967)
Lord Nicholas Gordon-Lennox (1978)
John Grigg (1993)
Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone (1970)
Lord Hartwell (1955)
Max Hastings (1993)
Roy Hattersley (1971)
Sir Edward Heath (1960)
Sir Nicholas Henderson (1976)
Lord Home of the Hirsel (1961)
Marmaduke Hussey (1989)
Lord Hutchinson (1978)
Earl Jellicoe (1978)
Lord Jenkins of Hillhead (1964)
Ludovic Kennedy (1991)
Tom King (1989)
Lord Kingsdown (1991)
Viscount Lambton (1961)
Bernard Levin (1986)
Lord Lever of Manchester (1969)
Dr Dickson Mabon (1978)
Sir Fitzroy Maclean (1969)
David Marquand (1976)
Lord Marsh (1971)

converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com

Anthony Montague Browne (1958)

Lord Moore of Wolvercote (1978)
John Mortimer (1993)
Christopher Patten (1986)
Lord Peyton (1971)
Lord Prior (1978)
John Profumo (1960)
Lord Pym (1981)
Lord Rees-Mogg (1973)
Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne (1973)
Lord Rothschild (1986)
Lord Shawcross (1953)
Peter Shore (1981)
John Smith (1986)
Lord St John of Fawsley (1984)
Nicholas Soames (1989)
Sir David Steel (1976)
Tom Stoppard (1993)
Lord Tebbit (1984)
Sir Denis Thatcher (1989)
Lord Thomas of Swynnerton (1981)
Lord Thorneycroft (1960)
Jeremy Thorpe (1971)
William Waldegrave (1981)
The Prince of Wales (1976)
Lord Walker (1971)
Lord Weinstock (1978)
Viscount Whitelaw (1967)
Lord Wilson of Rievaulx (1966)
Lord Wyatt of Weeford (1986)
Lord Younger (1986)
Other past members have included:
(This list is incomplete.)
Lord Birkenhead
Lord Kitchener
Lord Trenchard
Lord Montgomery
Lord Gort
Lord Alanbrooke
Charles Portal
Lord Moyne
Josiah Wedgwood
H. G. Wells
Arnold Bennett
A. E. W. Mason
P. G. Wodehouse
Lord Bracken
Walter Elliot
Sir William Orpen
Sir Alfred Munnings
Sir John Lavery
Sir Edwin Lutyens
Bob Boothby
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Lord Olivier
converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com

Lewis Douglas
Lord Norwich
Lloyd George
Jan Smuts
Sir Robert Menzies
Viscount Bennett
Lord Camrose
Lord Beaverbrook
Lord Rothermere
Edward Marsh
Leslie Rowan
Harcourt Johnstone
Lord Normanbrook
Aristotle Onassis
Oswald Mosley (Elected in 1930, and withdrew in 1935[6])

References

[ edit ]

John Colville, The Churchillians, 1981, ISBN 0-297-77909-5, chapter 1.

Derek Wilson, "Dark and Light", Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1998, ISBN 0-297-81718-3, p.227.
1. ^ Billington, Rachel (15 May 2006). "Book Reviews: Going from summer to shadows". Evening Standard. p. 34.
2. ^ "The Savoy London Meeting Rooms and Banquet Halls" . Fairmontmeetings.com. 20 April 2007. Retrieved 4 December
2011.
3. ^ Rules of The Other Club at The Churchill Centre
4. ^ http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour/issues-109-to-144/no-139/836-coverstory-the-friendship-between-churchill-and-fe-smith
5. ^ Lloyd, John (29 July 1997). "Secret members of the Other Club". The Times. p. 13.
6. ^ R. Skidelsky, Oswald Mosley (Papermacs, 1981), p. 236

Further reading

[ edit ]

The Other Club, Colin Coote, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1971. ISBN 0-283-48495-0 (Quite rare.)
v t e

Winston Churchill

Life

Writings

Winston Churchill as historian Winston Churchill as writer

Winston Churchill in politics: 190039 Military service World War II (Timeline War Rooms
conferences Percentages agreement) Statement on Atrocities
(European Advisory Commission) Honours of Winston Churchill Later life of Winston Churchill
The Other Club Blenheim Palace Chartwell St Martin's Church, Bladon
The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898) Savrola (1899 novel) The River War (1899)
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900) Ian Hamilton's March (1900)
Lord Randolph Churchill (1906) The World Crisis (1923-1931, five volumes) My Early Life (1930)
Marlborough: His Life and Times (1933-1938, four volumes) Great Contemporaries (1937)
Arms and the Covenant (1938) The Second World War (1948-1963, six volumes)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956-1958, four volumes)

Speeches

"Blood, toil, tears, and sweat" "Be ye men of valour" "We shall fight on the beaches"
"This was their finest hour" "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" "Iron Curtain"

Legacy and
depictions

Palace of Westminster statue Parliament Square statue Memorial Trusts

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Centre U.S. Churchill Museum Cultural depictions

Related

Family

Norway Debate Terminological inexactitude Tonypandy Riots Sword of Stalingrad

Operation Unthinkable
Lord Randolph Churchill (father) Jennie Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill (mother)
John Strange Spencer-Churchill (brother)
Clementine Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill (wife) Diana Churchill (daughter)
Randolph Churchill (son) Sarah Churchill (daughter) Marigold Churchill (daughter)
Mary Soames, Baroness Soames (daughter) Descendants John Spencer-Churchill (grandfather)
Frances Anne Spencer-Churchill (grandmother) Leonard Jerome (grandfather)
Commons

Wikibooks

Wikiquote

Wikisource texts

Categories: Winston Churchill 1911 establishments in the United Kingdom Dining clubs

converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com

This page was last modified on 6 March 2016, at 01:23.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use
and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Developers Cookie statement Mobile view

converted by W eb2PDFConvert.com