Loan 96 RLF 4/22

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1891 and 1899. The records are organised by year; for each year, there is a single folder containing documents relating to that year’s dinner, principally letters, administrative documents and stationary such as tickets and toast lists. The contents of the individual folders are listed below; contents are also listed on the fronts of the folders themselves. In the later folders the front matter also contains details of those who attended the dinners.

1891 (Chairman: Hardinge Stanley Giffard, Baron Halsbury and Lord High Chancellor):

1: Correspondence regarding the chairman from Lord Halsbury and the Earl of Derby (Edward Henry Stanley); correspondence respecting speeches from William Smith, James Bryce, William Cooke, Thomas Norton Longman, Sir Edwin Arnold, Francis Henry Jeune, the Dean of St Paul’s (Robert Gregory), Alfred Ainger and Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; stewards’ invitation card; circular to stewards and members; dinner tickets; menu; programme of music; toast list; subscription paper; plan of the tables; newspaper reports; letter from Percy Melville Thornton of the anniversary committee; correspondence with members and donors, namely Messrs Burns & Oates, Andrew Carnegie, Messrs Cassell & Co, the Chinese Minister, Sir Edward Harland, Alexander Henderson, Charles John Leaf, Arthur Oliver Mudie, Baron de Reuter, R H Pinhey, Sir David Salomans, Ernest Schiff, William Smith and E Steinkopff; correspondence respecting the tavern from Messrs Spiers & Pond; letter from A A Ebborn (the Fund’s collector).

1892 (Chairman: William Edward Hartpole Lecky):

1: Correspondence respecting the tavern from Messrs Spiers & Pond; correspondence respecting the music from Alfred Hays; correspondence regarding the chair from the Earl of Derby (Edward Henry Stanley), William Smith, Sir William Thomson (Baron Kelvin) and William Edward Hartpole Lecky; stewards’ invitation card; circular to members; circular to stewards; minutes of anniversary committee; plan of tables; subscription papers; toast list; reminder to stewards; dinner ticket; menu; newspaper extracts dinner tickets; menu; letter from William Edward Hartpole Leckyto the Earl of Derby; letter from Henry S Bryant to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; correspondence respecting speeches from James Dewar, Joseph Charles Parkinson, Charles Synge Christopher Bowen, Percy Melville Thornton, Lord Kinnear (Alexander Kinnear), Richard Claverhouse Jebb, the Master of Trinity (Henry Montagu Butler), Ralph Copeland, James Anthony Froude, William Cooke, Thomas Norton Longman, , Edward Maunde Thompson, Walter William Skeat, John W Hales, Joseph Hurst Lupton, Lewis Campbell and the Earl of Derby; correspondence respecting a donation from R B Litchfield from Edward Robert Robson, James Orrock and R B Litchfield.

1893 (Chairman: The Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour):

1: Correspondence relating to the room, from the Manager of Gordon Hotels Limited and the Earl of Derby (Edward Henry Stanley); correspondence regarding the chair from the Earl of Derby and Arthur James Balfour; correspondence from members of the anniversary committee, namely William Cooke, Henry Craik, Frederick Macmillan, Sir Roberick Impey Murchico and Percy Melville Thornton; list of invitations to stewards; list of honorary invitations; stewards’ invitation card; honorary invitation card; circular to members; dinner ticket; ladies ticket; circular to stewards; plan of the tables; minutes of anniversary committee; correspondence relating to the speeches from the Earl of Derby, George Forrest Browne, Joseph Chamberlain, William Cooke, Vice-Admiral Philip Howard Colomb, Sir John Evans, Richard Claverhouse Jebb, Lord Halsbury (Hardinge Stanley Giffard), Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), Field Marshal Sir John Lintorn Arabin Simmons and the Assistant Editor of the Times; newspaper extracts; with a list on the folder of those who accepted and declined honorary invitations.

1894 (Chairman: General Frederick Sleigh Roberts, Earl Roberts):

1: Letters from the Hotel Metropole to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; letter from Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught; letters from General Frederick Sleigh Roberts; correspondence respecting speeches from the US Ambassador (Thomas Francis Bayard), William John Courthope, William Edward Hartpole Lecky) and Robert Yelverton Tyrrell; letters from Lord Houghton (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes) to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; stewards’ invitation card; honorary invitation card; circular to members; circular to stewards; dinner ticket; ladies ticket; plan of the tables; menu; toast list; letter from Percy Melville Thornton to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; letters regarding honorary invitations from Sir George Bowen, Thomas Francis Bayard, Sir Robert Bright, the Chinese Minister, Sir Andrew Clarke, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, Sir Drury Curzon Drury-Lowe, Lord Egerton of Tatton (Wilbraham Egerton), Sir George Higginson, [?] Goodenough, Sir Hugh Gough, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), Sir Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Lord Lingen (Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen), Sir James Mackay, R Pemberton, Sir John Pender and Sir Edward C S Williams.

1895 (Chairman: Prince George, Duke of York):

1: Letters from Sir W Paget Bowman and the Hotel Metropole to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; correspondence relating to the chairman from Lord Houghton (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes) and Sir Francis Walter de Winton; list of honorary invitations; letters accepting honorary invitations from the Duke of Teck (Prince Francis), Sir Archibald Alison, Lord Egerton of Tatton (Wilbraham Egerton), Sir Gerald Fitzgerald, the Marquis of Lansdowne (Henry Charles Keith petty-Fitzmaurice), Lord Lingen (Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen) and Judge [?] Prowse; letter from Sir Halliday Macartney, enclosing a cheque from the Chinese Minister; list of invitations to stewards; honorary invitation card; stewards’ invitation card; circular to members; dinner tickets; plan of the tables; menu; toast list; advertisements and newspaper reports; correspondence relating to the speeches from Lord Houghton (Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes), Lord Egerton of Tatton (Wilbraham Egerton), Sir Archibald Alison, Rear-Admiral Argentine Hugh Alington, the Bishop of Peterborough (Mandell Creighton), Sir William Reynell Anson, George Wyndham, Alfred Ainger, William Samuel Lilly, Henry Craik, John Murray, Joseph Charles Parkinson and the Bishop of Stepney (George Forrest Browne); correspondence regarding the anniversary committee from George Forrest Browne, William Samuel Lilly and Arthur Guise (for Lord Houghton).

1896 (Chairman: Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, Earl of Crewe)

1: Correspondence relating to the chair from the Earl of Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes), correspondence relating to the room from the Whitehall Rooms and the Corporation of Sons of the Clergy; correspondence relating to speeches from the Earl of Crewe, the Warden of Merton (George Charles Brodrick), Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Henry Craik, Francis Edward Younghusband and Joseph Charles Parkinson; toast list; plan of tables; menu; newspaper report (with details on the folder of the dinner’s stewards, honorary invitations and members attending).

1897 (Chairman: Joseph Lister, Baron Lister):

1: Correspondence respecting the room, from Gordon Hotels Limited; the Earl of Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes) to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; correspondence regarding the chair from Lord Lister; correspondence regarding speeches from Lord Crewe, the Bishop of Stepney (George Forrest Browne), Alfred Austen, John William Mackail, Robert Yelverton Tyrrell, Charles Knight Watson, Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer, and Frederick Macmillan; letters regarding donations from Charles Knight Watson and Joseph Lister; letters regarding the success of the dinner from Thomas Norton Longman to Arthur Llewelyn Roberts; invitation to stewards; circular to members; circular to public; circular to stewards; subscription paper; dinner ticket; lady’s ticket; toast list; menu; plan of tables; letters from Sir Richard Quain and Theodore Martin on contributions (with list of new members and donors on the folder).

1898 (Chairman: Spencer Compton Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire):

1: Correspondence relating to the venue from the Hotel Cecil and the Hotel Metropole; letters respecting the dinner from Lord Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes), Dodgson Hamilton Madden, John Richard Magrath, William Sinclair, Sir Henry Craik, Thomas Norton Longman (on an enclosed letter from Major [W?] Broadfoot), Reginald John Smith, Percy Melville Thornton, William Samuel Lilly and Almeric FitzRoy; invitation card; circular to members; circular to stewards; dinner ticket; lady’s ticket; menu; toast list; subscription paper; plan of tables; newspaper article (with list of stewards, members and guests on the folder).

1899 (Chairman: Sir George Otto Trevelyan):

1: Correspondence regarding the hotel from the manager of the Whitehall Rooms and Lord Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes); correspondence regarding the chair from Reginald John Smith, William Samuel Lilly, William Stebbing and Julian Sturgis; letters regarding the dinner from Sir George Otto Trevelyan (eight) and William Edward Hartpole Lecky; correspondence regarding the speeches from Lord Crewe, Sir Henry Craik, Thomas Norton Longman, Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), Sir James Stirling, Joseph Hodges Choate, Alfred Ainger, Sir Edward Grey, Edmund Gosse, Sir George Otto Trevelyan and Percy M. Thornton; dinner ticket; lady’s ticket; toast list and stewards; menu; plan of tables; circulars to members and stewards; newspaper article from the Times; letters from Sir W Paget Bowman and Thomas Norton Longman; resolution from the Committee thanking Sir George Otto Trevelyan, with Trevelayn’s reply (with list of stewards, donors, honorary invitations and members on the folder).