Loan 96 RLF 4/23

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1900 and 1908. 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. On some folders, the front matter also contains details of those who attended the dinners.

1900 (Chairman: Chief Justice Charles Arthur Russell, Baron Russell of Killowen):

1: Correspondence regarding dinner arrangements from the Earl of Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes), the manager of the Hotel Metropole, Sir Henry Craik and the manager of the Hotel Cecil; correspondence regarding the chair from the Earl of Crewe, William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Joseph Chamberlain and Charles Arthur Russell; correspondence respecting speeches from Alfred Ainger, Frederick Macmillan, John Fletcher Moulton, William Fowler, Edward Henry Pember and the Earl of Crewe; minutes of the anniversary committee; invitation card; dinner ticket; ladies’ ticket; circular to members; circular to stewards; newspaper clippings (provided by agency; letter from Thomas A Reed on the transcription of the speeches; correspondence regarding donations from Walter M Gibson (for Queen Victoria), George Charles Brodrick, Chatto & Windus, Alfred L Cohen, George Howard Darwin, Miss [?] Froude, Anstey Guthrie, Miss W F Hasker, Gertrude Jekyll, Susan, Countess of Malmesbury (Susan Harris), Frederick David Mocatta, Claude Montefiore, Walter Vaughan Morgan, Henry Oppenheim, George Rae, Mrs Frederick Pratt Barlow, Messrs Rothschild, Thomas B Strong, Mrs Humphry Ward (Mary Augusta Ward), John Lawson Walton, Henry Woodford and William Sinclair (with list of stewards pasted into the folder and a 1966 letter answering an enquiry about Mark Twain, who spoke at the dinner).

1901 (Chairman: Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury):

1: Correspondence regarding dinner arrangements from the manager of the Whitehall Rooms and the Earl of Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes); correspondence respecting speeches from Alfred Ainger, the Bishop of Ripon (William Boyd Carpenter), Sir William Reynell Anson; Earl Roberts (Frederick Sleigh Roberts), Sir Redvers Henry Buller, Sir James Hamilton, Sir Reginald Pole-Carew, Gilbert W Parker, Sir James Willcocks, and Fanny Warren (for Sir Charles Warren); letters regarding the anniversary from William Hugh Spottiswoode, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Henry Craik and Thomas Norton Longman; minutes of anniversary committee; invitation card to stewards; honorary invitation card; dinner ticket; ladies’ ticket; circular to members; circular to stewards; plan of tables; menu; toast list; newspaper cuttings; letters from donors, namely D Appleton & Co, Lord Ashbourne (Edward Gibson), Edward Atkin, Edward Atkinson, Legh Richmond Ayre, Arthur H S Barwell, Richard Bentley, Frank T Bullen, Chatto & Windus, Mrs C Talbot-Coke, Charles Alfred Cripps, J W Cross, Lionel Cust, Archibald Day, Arthur Beecher Ellicott, William Warde Fowler, Richard Garnett, Arthur Gore, Anstey Guthrie, J P Heseltine, Walter Hobhouse, John Temple Leader, Sidney Lee, H Le Forestier, C W Mitchell, Ludwig Mond, Arnold L Mumm, H E Murray, George Walter Prothero, George Rae, John Morgan Richards, Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, Charles Robert Rivington, Messrs Rothschild, the Bishop of St Asaph (Alfred G Edwards), the Salters’ Company, John Shelly, William Sinclair, E Steinkopff, Lionel Arthur Tollemache, Philip F Walker, R Williams and E Percival Wright, with a letter from William Michael Rossetti making a second donation after a clause in the Fund’s rules relating to ‘religion and morals’ was omitted.

1902 (Chairman: Joachim Goschen, Viscount Goschen):

Correspondence regarding dinner arrangements from the manager of the Whitehall Rooms; correspondence regarding the chair from Edward Dicey, Thomas Norton Longman and the Earl of Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes); correspondence respecting speeches from Reginald Smith, Stephem Phillips, Alfred Ainger, David Binning Monro, Joseph William Comyns Carr, the Earl of Crewe and Viscount Goschen; letters regarding the anniversary from William Hugh Spottiswoode and Arthur Croxton; letters from donors, namely Walter M Gibson (for the King), Alfred Ainger, Alfred Beit, Messrs Blackie & Sons, Messrs Cassell & Co, A Willson Crosse, Messrs John Dickinson & Co, Ross Fairfax, Thomas Dixon Galpin, Allerdale Grainger, Richard R Holmes, The Hospital, Henry Arthur Jones, Thomas Ridge Jones, the Marquess of Lansdowne (Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice), John Temple Leader, Sidney Lee, Edward Lloyd Limited, Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall, Robert Maclehose, Macmillan & Co, Frederick David Mocatta, J S Morgan & Co, Howard Morley, Arnold L Mumm, George Rae, Lord Rothschild (Nathaniel Mayer de Rothschild), John Stevenson, the Marquess of Salisbury (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil), E Steinkopff, Victor B Van de Weyer and Thomas Wise; invitation card to stewards; honorary invitation card; dinner ticket; ladies’ ticket; circular to members; circular to stewards; plan of tables; menu; toast list (with list of stewards pasted into the folder).

1903 (Chairman: Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton):

1: Correspondence regarding dinner arrangements from the manager of the Whitehall Rooms, Arthur Llewelyn Roberts, Richard R Holmes, Arthur Bigge, Sir Theodore Martin, John Morley, Henry White, Joseph Choate, the Earl of Crewe (Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes), William Edward Hartpole Lecky, George Wyndham and Sir Ian Hamilton; correspondence respecting speeches from Sir Ian Hamilton, Frederic Harrison, Admiral Lord Walter Kerr, Admiral Lord Charles Scott, Thomas Norton Longman, General Sir Arthur Power Palmer, John Charles Bigham, William Rann Kennedy and Lord Kelvin (William Thomson); letters from donors, namely Walter M Gibson (for the King), Sir Ian Hamilton, Charles Awdry, the Duke of Bedford (Herbrand Arthur Russell), Sir Ernest Cassell, Messrs Chatto & Windus, Messrs John Dickinson, Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff, Earl Egerton of Tatton (Wilbraham Egerton), George Robert Elsmie, George Charles Brodrick, Edward Ross Fairfax, Henry L Farrer, C N Frith, Richard Garnett, Martin Andrew Sharp Hume, William Paton Ker, William Edward Hartpole Lecky, Lord Lindsay, James Little, Messers Edward Lloyd Limited, the Warden of New College Oxford (William Archibald Spooner), Briton Riviére, Sir Thomas Henry Sanderson, Arthur S Tabor and H Smith Wright; miscellaneous related correspondence from Sir Ernest Clarke, Thomas Norton Longman, Joseph Charles Parkinson, Sir Ian Hamilton, J S Morgan & Co, Richard Bentley, Reginald Smith, W Thornton Sharp, F Lambert, Julian Sturgis, W Taylor, E M Percival, Marion Henry Spielmann and two unidentified correspondents; minutes of the anniversary committee; invitation card to stewards; honorary invitation card; dinner ticket; menu, toast list, subscription papers; plan of the tables; newspaper cuttings (with list of stewards pasted into the folder).

1904: (Chairman: James Matthew Barrie):

1: Correspondence regarding dinner arrangements from the manager of the Whitehall Rooms; correspondence regarding the chairman from Sir Theodore Martin, George Wyndham, [?] Hornibrook, Thomas Norton Longman and James Matthew Barrie (a large number of letters on the dinner, all placed together at this point in the file); correspondence respecting speeches from Alfred Edward Woodley Mason, Flora Annie Steel, Sir James Charles Mathew, Francis Henry Jeune, the Earl of Lytton (Victor Alexander George Robert Bulwer-Lytton), Joseph William Comyns Carr, Lord Tennyson (Hallam Tennyson) and Thomas Norton Longman; plan of the tables, menu and toast list; leaflet; invitation cards; circular to stewards; minutes of the anniversary committee; miscellaneous correspondence from Reginald Smith, Thomas Norton Longman, Hugh Spottiswoode, Lord Alverstone (Richard Everard Webster), the Goldsmiths’ Company, the Skinners’ company’ Sir Ernest Cassell and Henry James; letters from donors, namely Walter M Gibson (for the King), F G Aflalo, William Archer, Lord Armstrong (William Henry Armstrong Fitzpatrick Watson-Armstrong), Kenneth Barnes, Otto Beit, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell, Lord Brassey (Thomas Brassey), H B Brewster, Addison Bright, Messrs Chatto & Windus, J Frederick Chance, Theodore A Cook, D D Cunningham, the Daily Chronicle, George Knottesford Fortescue, Cecil Harmsworth, Mary St Leger Harrison, Beatrice Harradan, William Heinemann, Martin Andrew Sharp Hume, the Countess of Lathom (Wilma Bootle-Wilbraham), Sidney Lee, H Le Forestier, Charles Frohman, Lord Kinnear (Alexander Smith Kinnear), W Algernon Locker, Sidney Low, Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall, S R Lysaght, Messrs Macmillan & Co, Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (née Mary Elizabeth Braddon), Arnold L Mumm, Sir George Newnes, Edward A Petherick, John Rae, E J Reed, Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, Charles Robert Rivington, Messrs Rothschild, William Gunion Rutherford, Mrs M L Ryley, A Gordon Salomon, Messrs Scribner & Sons, Edith Anna Œnone Somerville, John James Stevenson, “a friend” of Alexander Pollock Watt, Henry Wilde, John Ernest Hodder-Williams, D Duncan (per Geoffrey Williams) and Aldis Wright

1905 (Chairman: Henry Montagu Butler, Master of Trinity College Cambridge):

1: Correspondence respecting the venue and chair from Lord Tennyson (Hallam Tennyson), Henry Montagu Butler and the manager of the Whitehall Rooms; correspondence respecting the speeches from Lady Lugard (Flora Louise Lugard), Mrs Humphry Ward (Mary Augusta Ward), Lady Frederick Cavendish, Margaret Louisa Woods, Elizabeth Robins, the Duchess of Marlborough (Lily Spencer-Churchill), Samuel Henry Butcher, Charles John Darling, Herbert George Wells, Edward Henry Pember, A Chichele Plowden, Henry Montagu Butler and John Murray; correspondence from members of the anniversary committee, namely Frederick Macmillan, Thomas Norton Longman and Reginald Smith; minutes of the anniversary committee; subscription paper; invitation cards; menu; advertisements from newspapers; letters from Arthur Llewelyn Roberts and Hallam Tennyson; letters from donors, namely Walter M Gibson (for the King), F G Aflalo, Sidney Appleton, the Maharajah Gaekwar of Baroda, Alfred Beit Sir Henry Bulwer, Edward Cadogan, Allen Campbell, Sir Ernest Cassel, Basil Champneys, T F Chance, F C Danvers, Messrs Dickinson & Co, George Samuel Elgood, Caeser Litton Falkiner, Charles Robert Leslie Fletcher, [?] Fortescue, William Warde Fowler, Richard Garnett, Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell, Miss M E Gaskell, Henry Neville Gladstone, Anstey Guthrie, Messrs Hodgson & Co, Miss Graham Hope, Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones, William Rann Kennedy, Mrs C P Lefroy, James Little, W Algernon Locker, Messrs J S Morgan & Co, John Fletcher Moulton, Arnold L Mumm, Eveleen Myers, Ernest Harold Pearce, George Walter Prothero, Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, Messrs Rothschild, M L Ryby, the Saturday Review, Walter Sichel, Mrs A Murray Smith, P Howard Smith, W A Spooner, G N Stevens, Darwell Stone and Sir George Otto Trevelyan.

1906 (Chairman: Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassador)

1: Correspondence concerning the dinner arrangements and speeches from Whitelaw Reid, the manager of the Whitehall Rooms, Lord Tennyson (Hallam Tennyson), Sir Richard R Holmes, Thomas Norton Longman, Reginald Smith and George Beer (of the London News Agency); rough minutes of the anniversary committee; invitation to stewards; dinner tickets; plan of tables; menu and toast list; subscription paper; circular to members; related correspondence from the Bishop of Bristol (George Forrest Browne), Albert F Calvert, the estate of [Pearl Craigie?], Mrs Charles Hunter, L T Meade (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade), Arthur Llewelyn Roberts and Mary C Rowsell.

1907 (Chairman: William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon):

1: Correspondence concerning the venue from the manager of the Whitehall Rooms; minutes of the anniversary committee; plan of tables; stewards’ invitation card; dinner tickets; circulars to stewards and members; menu and toast list; subscription paper; related correspondence from Lord Tennyson (Hallam Tennyson), Sir Arthur Bigge, Malcolm Murray, the Bishop of Ripon, Alfred Deakin, C E H Chadwyck-Healey, Sir Henry Churchill Maxwell-Lyte, Henry Charles Beeching, Thomas Norton Longman, the President of Magdalen (Thomas Herbert Warren), the Earl of Halsbury (Hardinge Stanley Giffard), William Stebbing and LW Bangs; copies of advertisements for the dinner; letters detailing donations from the Leathersellers’ Company and Albert Frederick Calvert.